Former FBI Director James Comey took aim at President Donald Trump‘s Fox & Friends interview Thursday — saying the president’s statements were “just wrong” during a Fox interview of his own with Bret Baier.

During his appearance earlier in the day, Trump repeated his refrain of calling Comey “a liar” and “a leaker,” claiming “he’s been leaking for years.”

“He’s probably been using his friend, the so-called professor, who now turns out to have FBI clearance, which he never said,” Trump told Fox. “He even lied about that. Because he never said that in Congress. He said he gave it to a friend. And he gave it to a friend to leak classified information. It’s all classified. It was totally classified. So illegally he did an illegal act and he said it himself in order to get a special counsel against me.”



The professor to which Trump was referring is Daniel Richman who works at Columbia University’s law school and leaked Comey’s memos.



However, speaking with Baier, Comey fired back at the president’s version of the events involving Richman, saying they were false. Comey also noted that the FBI cleared his new book, A Higher Loyalty, before it ever hit the shelves.



“He is just wrong,” Comey said. “Facts really do matter, which is why I’m on the show to answer your questions. That memo was unclassified then. It’s still unclassified. It’s in my book. The FBI cleared that book before it could be published. That’s a false statement.”



Asked whether there was any validity to Trump’s description of Richman, Comey defended his own portrayal of his relationship with the professor, noting Richman was no longer part of the FBI during when the memo leak occurred.



“None of that was true,” Comey told Baier. “I mean, I described you him I hope good friend. Expose bias connection to the guy? He had left his FBI job months earlier. There is lots of other connections. I know him because we were prosecutors together. I didn’t mention that I taught with him at Columbia. I didn’t mention that. I think I offered to Congress a fair picture of of my connection to the guy.”



Watch the clip above, via Fox News.



[Image via screengrab]

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