"Comey knew it all, and much more!," President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images Trump slams Comey, mentions Mueller for first time in tweet

President Donald Trump on Saturday upped his attacks on former FBI Director James Comey, accusing him of turning a blind eye to "lies" and "leaks" at the agency as the firestorm over the firing of Comey's deputy, Andrew McCabe, continued.

In a later posting, the president mentioned special counsel Robert Mueller by name for the first time in a tweet.


"The Fake News is beside themselves that McCabe was caught, called out and fired," the president wrote on Twitter. "How many hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to wife’s campaign by Crooked H friend, Terry M, who was also under investigation? How many lies? How many leaks? Comey knew it all, and much more!"

Comey, who is about to begin a book tour, was quick to respond.

"The American people will hear my story very soon," Comey wrote on Twitter. "And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not."

Earlier, Trump attacked officials at "the highest levels" of FBI and Justice and State Departments, tweeting: "As the House Intelligence Committee has concluded, there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign. As many are now finding out, however, there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State. #DrainTheSwamp"

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The back-and-forth came a day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe, saying the FBI deputy director "had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions."

The president has long targeted McCabe, a key Comey confidant, over campaign donations received by his wife when she ran for Virginia state senate, claiming it was evidence of a plot by Democrats and the "deep state" to smear Trump after his 2016 election win. Trump fired then FBI Director Comey in May 2017.

The House Intelligence Committee's concluded earlier this week that there is no evidence of collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia during the 2016 election — although top Democrats on the committee said they were not given a chance to view the summary of the Republican-controlled panel's findings before they were made public, and have called the decision to end the investigation premature.

In an interview with POLITICO, McCabe said the episode, including being the subject of multiple tweets from the president, had been "personally devastating" and "tough on my family."

Later on Saturday night, Trump tweeted that special counsel Robert Mueller's probe should have "never been started."

"The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!"

The president had previously steered clear of attacking Mueller by name on Twitter.

-- Kyle Cheney contributed to this report