James Comey says Trump tells 'dumb lies' in an attempt to smear the FBI

Former FBI Director James Comey understands why "it's tempting for normal people to ignore our president when he starts ranting about treason and corruption at the FBI," but now is the time to pay attention and "call out his lies," he wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday night in The Washington Post.

Trump is a "liar who doesn't care what damage he does to vital institutions," Comey said. Trump has accused the FBI of being corrupt and committing treason, saying agents spied on his campaign, but "stubborn facts" prove otherwise.

Comey writes about Russian interference in the 2016 election, and how the Trump campaign knew about meddling but never notified the FBI, with the bureau finally learning about it from an ambassador. The investigation was conducted discreetly, because if "there was nothing to it, we didn't want to smear Americans," Comey said. "If there was something to it, we didn't want to let corrupt Americans know we were onto them. So, we kept it secret. That's how the FBI approaches all counterintelligence cases."

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The FBI did not "spy" on anyone, and investigators were able to show they had probable cause to get a federal court order to conduct electronic surveillance on a former Trump campaign adviser believed to be acting as an agent of the Russian government, Comey said. This was never revealed, "despite the fact that it was late October and a leak would have been very harmful to candidate Trump," he added. "Worst deep-state conspiracy ever." Comey predicted that once the investigations into the investigators are over, "you will find the work was done appropriately and focused only on discerning the truth of very serious allegations. There was no corruption. There was no treason. There was no attempted coup. Those are lies, and dumb lies at that."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.