Trump slams James Comey as 'slippery' in new Twitter tirade

In a barrage of tweets Sunday morning, President Donald Trump took aim at James Comey, ripping the fired FBI director as "slippery" and a "slimeball."

In a span of two hours, Trump posted six tweets regarding Comey and panning the former G-man's new book, "Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies And Leadership."

"Slippery James Comey, a man who always ends up badly and out of whack (he is not smart!), will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!" Trump stated in one of his tweets.

The presidential Twitter tempest came ahead of Sunday night's broadcast of Comey's interview with ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on "20/20."

Trump, who has taken to Twitter to blast Comey in the past, began a new round of social media attacks on Friday when he tweeted that Comey was a "proven LEAKER & LIAR."

Comey shot back Sunday afternoon with a Tweet that didn't mention Trump by name but inferred that the current occupant of the Oval Office is ethically challenged.

"My book is about ethical leadership & draws on stories from my life & lessons I learned from others. 3 presidents are in my book: 2 help illustrate the values at the heart of ethical leadership; 1 serves as a counterpoint. I hope folks read the whole thing and find it useful," Comey tweeted.

In his book, Comey compares Trump to a Mafia boss who demanded his "loyalty" during a one-on-one dinner.

"The demand was like Sammy the Bull's Cosa Nostra induction ceremony," Comey writes in his book, referring to Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, a former leader of the Gambino crime family, whose testimony ultimately helped convict mob boss John Gotti.

"I never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies. His 'memos' are self serving and FAKE!" Trump tweeted of a series of memos Comey says he wrote following his meetings with Trump.

Comey was appointed FBI director by former President Barack Obama in September 2013 and was fired by Trump on May 9, 2017. Trump said he canned Comey "because he wasn't doing a good job."

About a month after he was dismissed, Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he believed Trump fired him to impede the FBI's investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

"I was fired in some way to change -- or the endeavor was to change -- the way the Russia investigation was being conducted," Comey told the committee.

In his book, set to go on sale on Tuesday, Comey offers a no-holds-barred assessment of Trump, calling the nation's 45th president "unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values."

"His leadership is transactional, ego-driven and about personal loyalty," Comey writes.

During his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey admitted giving his private memos on Trump to a friend, a Columbia University professor, to leak to an unnamed reporter, saying, "I thought it might prompt the appointment of a special counsel" in the Russian investigation.

Robert Mueller was named as the special counsel to the Russia investigation on May 17, 2017.

In his flurry of tweets Sunday, Trump suggested that Comey should be jailed for allegedly leaking classified information and allegedly lying to Congress. The president also made reference to $675,000 in donations that went to Jill McCabe's unsuccessful 2015 campaign for a Virginia state Senate Seat from the Virginia Democratic Party and Common Good VA.

Jill McCabe is the wife of Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI who was fired by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions two days before he was scheduled to retire.

"The big questions in Comey's badly reviewed book aren't answered like, how come he gave up Classified Information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail), why did the DNC refuse to give Server to the FBI (why didn't they TAKE it), and why the phony memos, McCabe's $700,000 & more?" Trump tweeted.

Trump also scoffed at the excuse Comey writes in his book about his decision to announce that the FBI was going to look back into the Hillary Clinton email investigation just days before the presidential election. Comey writes that his decision was influenced by his belief that Clinton would beat Trump and his desire to make sure that the election results were viewed as legitimate.

"Unbelievably, James Comey states that Polls, where Crooked Hillary was leading, were a factor in the handling (stupidly) of the Clinton Email probe. In other words, he was making decisions based on the fact that he thought she was going to win, and he wanted a job. Slimeball!" Trump tweeted Sunday.

In yet another tweet, Trump accused Comey of throwing former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch "under the bus."

Trump suggested that Lynch's 2016 meeting on a Phoenix airport tarmac with former President Bill Clinton was to get her to drop an investigation against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while she was Obama's Secretary of State. Both Lynch and Bill Clinton have denied they discussed the issue on the tarmac.