August 17, 2024 • 14 mins
Former FBI Director James Comey has expressed concern about what a second Trump presidency could mean for the Department of Justice.
Comey famously claimed he would move to New Zealand if Trump was re-elected for a second term back in 2020.
Comey says Trump was a threat to the rule of law during his term in the Oval Office - and could easily make things worse.
"If he got another four years, he would be a continuing threat - and a more dangerous threat, because he'd be both smarter and more interested in retribution."
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb Right from director of the FBI to crime fiction writer.
It's quite a career turn, isn't it. That's the path
James Comy has taken. A lawyer for most of his career.
James was appointed as a seventh director of the FBI
before being fired by Donald Trump just four years into
a ten years stant in the role. After writing a
couple of non fiction books, James turned his hand to
(00:32):
fiction and is now the author of the Nora Carlington series.
The second of those books is out now. It's called Westport,
and James Comy is with me. Hi, Jim, thanks so
much for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Oh it's great to be with you. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So tell me. You've been an attorney prosecutor director of
the FBI. How do you go from a career in
law enforcement and ultimately the top job in that field
to writing novels?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
By accident, mostly and thanks to people who pushed me
to do it and urged me to try fiction, which
I resume it first and I'm glad that they pushed me.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
You'd written nonfiction before your last two fiction books. But
have you always been a writer.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I've always loved to write. But the last time I
wrote I was I was a teenager the last time
I wrote fiction. But I always loved to write at
the FBI. I wrote all my own speeches, I wrote
all my own emails. I love the business of writing.
And I've always typed very quickly. I took a typing
class when I was in school, trying to get a
(01:38):
coach to put me on a team who he was
the teacher of the typing class. And that didn't work.
But I learned how to type very quickly. And so
I love to put fingers on a keyboard and create something.
And I'm so glad that I was convinced to try fiction,
to put fingers on a keyboard and tell stories, to
show people some worlds I've known who.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Did convince you to do that.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
The editor of my second nonfiction book kept saying, oh,
I like this scene. I like that scene. And I
would say, hey, man, it's not a scene, that's my life,
and he would say, hey, yeah, yeah, okay, But you
write narrative, well, you write dialogue, well, you keep pace,
well you should try it. And first he said, why
don't we pair you with an experienced fiction writer, And
(02:23):
I resisted that, and I said, look, if I ever did it,
given how much I love to write, I would do
it myself. But no, And then he came back and said,
you really ought to try. You really ought to try.
And then my wife, who is the source of all
good ideas in my life in writing, proposed a story,
and so I said, you know what, I'll give it
a shot. And so when I started it, I found
it and I've still found it. Hard to believe. It's
(02:44):
hard to stop. It's what I want to do when
I grow up, Believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It's lovely that your wife, Patrice has a big role
in this writing, because I imagine with your previous career
there was often a lot that you couldn't talk about.
How nice is it that you can actually share your
job now?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Oh, it's so great, because you're right. It was a
source of pain and frustration that when she knew something
was bothering me, I couldn't always tell her what it
was and get her advice on it. Now that I'm
making up stories, although trying to keep them true to
the places I've been, she can be deeply into it,
given me ideas, give me brutal but loving feedback, and
(03:24):
a part of the whole process.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It's interesting you talk about that sort of true to
life aspect of the book. I am not a lawyer,
I've never worked in a hedge fund, and yet immediately
when you start reading your books there is a sense
of authenticity. There is a sense that the author knows
what they're talking about. That's obviously going to be really
important to you, considering that you know you have life
experience in these areas.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, it is very important for two reasons, one big
and one sort of small and petty. The big reason
is I've been lucky enough to see really interesting, sometimes
crazy places, and I'd love to and I'm trying to
show those worlds through the vehicle of fiction to people.
That's the big reason. But the small reason is I
(04:11):
have a lot of pain in the rear end friends
who if I got things wrong would call me out
on it, and so I work very hard to get
to make it real in all respects, so I don't
get those texts mocking me. Well.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
There's a third reason as well, James, which is very similar,
and that is that your readers you know, they observe,
you know people, we absorb absolutely everything, and there will
be other people out there. You'll have your fans. He'll
be very happy to tell you as well, maybe when
you didn't get something right.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, they'll tell me in a more loving way than
my friends.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Well that's good to hear. Did you read crime fiction
during your career? Did you have any time to read?
Have you always been a fan of that genre.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I had time to read, but I never trying to
think that. I think the last crime fiction I read
was nineteen eighty seven. I read Scott Turou's great book,
Presumed Innocent before I became a federal prosecutor for the
first time, and after that I just found it's so
hard to pick up not because the authors didn't didn't
(05:14):
know those worlds, but because I didn't want those worlds
in my leisure time. So I would read other stuff,
both fiction and nonfiction, but stayed away from anything that
touched crime or terrorism or espionage because that filled my days.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah that makes sense. So is there a fine line
when you're using your real life as a basis for
fictions in terms of how deep you go into your
own experience or those around.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You, yes, because I don't want to offend people. I
don't want people to think I'm writing secret stories about them.
I also don't want to give away secrets that I
owe to my former employers a duty of protection, right.
I don't want to give away things that woul jeopardize
FBI business, or tell secrets about a private financial manager
(05:59):
that might hurt them. And so I found though that
I can tell stories within those boundaries that there's plenty
to tell and show without giving away the secrets that
I'm supposed to protect and without offending people because I
just take pieces of people and create characters, and I
can and then I can truthfully deny to them that
(06:21):
it is them.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Your first two books are about Nora Carlton and in Westport.
She is the lead council at the world's largest hedge fund. You,
of course with General Counsel of Bridgewater. How much of
Nora and those books are inspired by that particular time
in your life.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Well, the book Westport is hugely inspired by my five
years living in Westport, my three years at the world's
largest hedge fund. I've tried very hard, and it's not
to write, not to write a secret, secret history of Bridgewater.
This is not that, but I've tried to use that
experience to capture the spirit, the zeitgeist of that world,
(07:02):
and to tell a story in that world in a
way that will feel real to people who still work
at edge funds, and that I've gotten the sense of
things correctly. And then Nora is obviously close to my
heart because I've i put her together drawing from my
own children, especially my oldest daughter, who's a federal prosecutor,
and so I have tall, strong women in my life,
(07:25):
and I've tried to make Nora that because I know
that person and I love the people who I've put
together to create that person.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
You must be very proud of your daughters. I know
that Maureen was the lead prosecutor in the Gilene Maxwell trial,
wasn't she?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yes, she was, And I was actually writing the first book,
Central Park West while she was prosecuting that case. And
my original plan, which makes me cringe a little bit
when I think back on it, was I was going
to have the protagonist be a guy, a mini me
in a way, and I was writing it that way
when she was prosecuting Glenn Maxwell, and she was doing
(08:04):
it in Courtroom three eight at the old Federal Courthouse
in Lower Manhattan, and all of a sudden, she wouldn't
let me come by the way, she wouldn't let me
come watch because she said it would be a thing
if I came, whatever that means. But my wife went
and gave me reports, and it dawned on me that
that's the same courtroom three eighteen in which I prosecuted
(08:24):
the mobsters John and Joe Gambino when she was a
little girl. And so it was obvious to me in
a way. I'm embarrassed to say, I didn't see earlier
that the protagonist had to be a woman in a
way that I didn't anticipate that was freeing because I
wasn't writing about me. I was writing about her and
my other kids, who I sort of built into the character,
(08:46):
and that made it a labor of love literally and unlock.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Something for me that's really interesting. I hadn't thought about
that either. But you're right, if you'd kind of made
the character a male, it would be hard, considering your
incredible career in these worlds that you're writing about, for
then for your friends not to give you a little
bit of a you know, a harassment there James about
the comparisons and how you've written about yourself. It would
(09:11):
be hard to remove yourself from that character. That's right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
That's right. And I'm not doing it as a vanity project. Frankly,
I've had enough of me in the public eye. But
I want to write an interesting story. And when it's
not me as the protagonist, when it is these women
that I know and have helped raise with my spouse
combine into a character, it is just a ton of fun.
(09:37):
And it also gives me a vehicle to write about relationships,
which I've learned a lot about just from being alive.
But also I'm married to an amazing woman who is
a marriage and family therapist, and so her life is
relationships and how people navigate traditional family relationships untraditional family relationships,
and so I've tried to build a lot of that,
with the help of my wife and kids, into the
(09:59):
stories as well.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
And I understand that your family are your biggest critics.
They proof read the books and very happy to give
your feedback.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Oh yes, they love to, and it's wonderful that they do.
And they know that I crave the truth from them,
and so I start all five kids read the books
and give me detailed, detailed notes. Patresea's reading it in
real time when I'm writing through a Google doc and
commenting daily on what she sees and ideas she has.
(10:28):
So it's a family affair. And then once I get
it in a place that the five kids are happy
with and that Patrese is happy with, then it's out
to a circle of friends who know those worlds and
who will see things and also delight in telling me
when I'm wrong about something.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
James, in twenty nineteen you joked that you would move
to New Zealand of Trump one and twenty twenty, is
that on the cards again? If he wins in November,
do we need to start looking for a place for you.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
It's funny you should talk about that. My wife and
I actually discussed it not long ago and said we'd
still love to because New Zealand offers well, I don't
have to tell people who know New Zealand extraordinary place
with an incredible variety of beautiful scenes and temperatures and elevations,
what a remarkable place, and you're lucky to live there.
(11:16):
But our grandkids are here, and so we'd have to
take the whole group to New Zealand, and we don't
see that happening. And so I've told people more recently,
look God forbid that Trump becomes the next American president,
and I'm increasingly optimistic that he won't be. But if
he were, I love my country but especially my family
too much to go any place.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
What would a Trump presidency mean for the Department of
Justice and law enforcement? Are you concerned about the threats there?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Very much? He is a person who is a threat
to the rule of law, was a threat to the
rule of law during his first four years. If he
got another four years, he would be a continuing threat,
in a more dangerous threat, because he'd be both smarter
and more interested in retribution. And Donald Trump's a person
(12:06):
whose promises you can't trust, but whose threats you should
listen too carefully, because he believes that a threat has
to be followed up on or the threatener appears weak.
And that's the great sin in his life, is to
appear weak. So I think it would be a great
threat to the rule of law generally, and to a
lawless president's interest in using the prosecutive and investigative power
(12:29):
of the Department of Justice and the FBI to go
after people.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Would you ever consider a return to a public role.
Was the unfinished business there? Or is writing fiction in
your future? Now?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
There is no unfinished business. I never thought I would
go back. I thought I was done in two thousand
and five and was very surprised when President Obama asked
me to go back and be FBI director. So I'm
pretty sure that we're done now, and there's no I
don't feel a hunger for it, and there really is
no unfinished business. Plenty of good people to serve in
(13:02):
the US government without me having to leave fiction.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Could the the end of your tenure at the FBI
ever be used as a sort of a subject for
future fiction?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Do you think?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yes? It's funny you should ask. I've resisted taking readers
to Washington because it was just too icky for me,
and the farther I get from it, the more comfortable
I feel taking the readers there. So I, with Patresa's help,
we've envisioned a trilogy in Washington, and so we will
(13:35):
take you there at some point, to the White House,
to the FBI, to the CIA, to secure rooms in Congress,
places that I spend a lot of time to tell stories,
that will be fun and take people inside those worlds
and not produce too much trauma for me.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
The good news is, though, I mean, I've fallen in
love with Nora. And the good news is, of course
at a third book is pretty much always finished.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yes, I submitted it last week to the publisher, and
I feel really good about it. It's focused on Nora's
battle against domestic extremism, white identity, white supremacy in the
United States, which will unfortunately not be a thing of
the past when the book comes out next year. And
so it's a topic that I care about a lot,
(14:21):
and it's a vehicle through which to tell some really
good stories.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
James Comey, thank you so much for your time. It's
been wonderful to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Oh, it's wonderful to talk to you too.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And that was former FBI directed James Comey. His new book,
Westport is in stores now.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb Right from director of the FBI to crime fiction writer.
It's quite a career turn, isn't it. That's the path
James Comy has taken. A lawyer for most of his career.
James was appointed as a seventh director of the FBI
before being fired by Donald Trump just four years into
a ten years stant in the role. After writing a
couple of non fiction books, James turned his hand to
(00:32):
fiction and is now the author of the Nora Carlington series.
The second of those books is out now. It's called Westport,
and James Comy is with me. Hi, Jim, thanks so
much for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Oh it's great to be with you. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So tell me. You've been an attorney prosecutor director of
the FBI. How do you go from a career in
law enforcement and ultimately the top job in that field
to writing novels?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
By accident, mostly and thanks to people who pushed me
to do it and urged me to try fiction, which
I resume it first and I'm glad that they pushed me.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
You'd written nonfiction before your last two fiction books. But
have you always been a writer.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I've always loved to write. But the last time I
wrote I was I was a teenager the last time
I wrote fiction. But I always loved to write at
the FBI. I wrote all my own speeches, I wrote
all my own emails. I love the business of writing.
And I've always typed very quickly. I took a typing
class when I was in school, trying to get a
(01:38):
coach to put me on a team who he was
the teacher of the typing class. And that didn't work.
But I learned how to type very quickly. And so
I love to put fingers on a keyboard and create something.
And I'm so glad that I was convinced to try fiction,
to put fingers on a keyboard and tell stories, to
show people some worlds I've known who.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Did convince you to do that.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
The editor of my second nonfiction book kept saying, oh,
I like this scene. I like that scene. And I
would say, hey, man, it's not a scene, that's my life,
and he would say, hey, yeah, yeah, okay, But you
write narrative, well, you write dialogue, well, you keep pace,
well you should try it. And first he said, why
don't we pair you with an experienced fiction writer, And
(02:23):
I resisted that, and I said, look, if I ever did it,
given how much I love to write, I would do
it myself. But no, And then he came back and said,
you really ought to try. You really ought to try.
And then my wife, who is the source of all
good ideas in my life in writing, proposed a story,
and so I said, you know what, I'll give it
a shot. And so when I started it, I found
it and I've still found it. Hard to believe. It's
(02:44):
hard to stop. It's what I want to do when
I grow up, Believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It's lovely that your wife, Patrice has a big role
in this writing, because I imagine with your previous career
there was often a lot that you couldn't talk about.
How nice is it that you can actually share your
job now?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Oh, it's so great, because you're right. It was a
source of pain and frustration that when she knew something
was bothering me, I couldn't always tell her what it
was and get her advice on it. Now that I'm
making up stories, although trying to keep them true to
the places I've been, she can be deeply into it,
given me ideas, give me brutal but loving feedback, and
(03:24):
a part of the whole process.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It's interesting you talk about that sort of true to
life aspect of the book. I am not a lawyer,
I've never worked in a hedge fund, and yet immediately
when you start reading your books there is a sense
of authenticity. There is a sense that the author knows
what they're talking about. That's obviously going to be really
important to you, considering that you know you have life
experience in these areas.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, it is very important for two reasons, one big
and one sort of small and petty. The big reason
is I've been lucky enough to see really interesting, sometimes
crazy places, and I'd love to and I'm trying to
show those worlds through the vehicle of fiction to people.
That's the big reason. But the small reason is I
(04:11):
have a lot of pain in the rear end friends
who if I got things wrong would call me out
on it, and so I work very hard to get
to make it real in all respects, so I don't
get those texts mocking me. Well.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
There's a third reason as well, James, which is very similar,
and that is that your readers you know, they observe,
you know people, we absorb absolutely everything, and there will
be other people out there. You'll have your fans. He'll
be very happy to tell you as well, maybe when
you didn't get something right.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, they'll tell me in a more loving way than
my friends.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Well that's good to hear. Did you read crime fiction
during your career? Did you have any time to read?
Have you always been a fan of that genre.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I had time to read, but I never trying to
think that. I think the last crime fiction I read
was nineteen eighty seven. I read Scott Turou's great book,
Presumed Innocent before I became a federal prosecutor for the
first time, and after that I just found it's so
hard to pick up not because the authors didn't didn't
(05:14):
know those worlds, but because I didn't want those worlds
in my leisure time. So I would read other stuff,
both fiction and nonfiction, but stayed away from anything that
touched crime or terrorism or espionage because that filled my days.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah that makes sense. So is there a fine line
when you're using your real life as a basis for
fictions in terms of how deep you go into your
own experience or those around.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You, yes, because I don't want to offend people. I
don't want people to think I'm writing secret stories about them.
I also don't want to give away secrets that I
owe to my former employers a duty of protection, right.
I don't want to give away things that woul jeopardize
FBI business, or tell secrets about a private financial manager
(05:59):
that might hurt them. And so I found though that
I can tell stories within those boundaries that there's plenty
to tell and show without giving away the secrets that
I'm supposed to protect and without offending people because I
just take pieces of people and create characters, and I
can and then I can truthfully deny to them that
(06:21):
it is them.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Your first two books are about Nora Carlton and in Westport.
She is the lead council at the world's largest hedge fund. You,
of course with General Counsel of Bridgewater. How much of
Nora and those books are inspired by that particular time
in your life.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Well, the book Westport is hugely inspired by my five
years living in Westport, my three years at the world's
largest hedge fund. I've tried very hard, and it's not
to write, not to write a secret, secret history of Bridgewater.
This is not that, but I've tried to use that
experience to capture the spirit, the zeitgeist of that world,
(07:02):
and to tell a story in that world in a
way that will feel real to people who still work
at edge funds, and that I've gotten the sense of
things correctly. And then Nora is obviously close to my
heart because I've i put her together drawing from my
own children, especially my oldest daughter, who's a federal prosecutor,
and so I have tall, strong women in my life,
(07:25):
and I've tried to make Nora that because I know
that person and I love the people who I've put
together to create that person.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
You must be very proud of your daughters. I know
that Maureen was the lead prosecutor in the Gilene Maxwell trial,
wasn't she?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yes, she was, And I was actually writing the first book,
Central Park West while she was prosecuting that case. And
my original plan, which makes me cringe a little bit
when I think back on it, was I was going
to have the protagonist be a guy, a mini me
in a way, and I was writing it that way
when she was prosecuting Glenn Maxwell, and she was doing
(08:04):
it in Courtroom three eight at the old Federal Courthouse
in Lower Manhattan, and all of a sudden, she wouldn't
let me come by the way, she wouldn't let me
come watch because she said it would be a thing
if I came, whatever that means. But my wife went
and gave me reports, and it dawned on me that
that's the same courtroom three eighteen in which I prosecuted
(08:24):
the mobsters John and Joe Gambino when she was a
little girl. And so it was obvious to me in
a way. I'm embarrassed to say, I didn't see earlier
that the protagonist had to be a woman in a
way that I didn't anticipate that was freeing because I
wasn't writing about me. I was writing about her and
my other kids, who I sort of built into the character,
(08:46):
and that made it a labor of love literally and unlock.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Something for me that's really interesting. I hadn't thought about
that either. But you're right, if you'd kind of made
the character a male, it would be hard, considering your
incredible career in these worlds that you're writing about, for
then for your friends not to give you a little
bit of a you know, a harassment there James about
the comparisons and how you've written about yourself. It would
(09:11):
be hard to remove yourself from that character. That's right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
That's right. And I'm not doing it as a vanity project. Frankly,
I've had enough of me in the public eye. But
I want to write an interesting story. And when it's
not me as the protagonist, when it is these women
that I know and have helped raise with my spouse
combine into a character, it is just a ton of fun.
(09:37):
And it also gives me a vehicle to write about relationships,
which I've learned a lot about just from being alive.
But also I'm married to an amazing woman who is
a marriage and family therapist, and so her life is
relationships and how people navigate traditional family relationships untraditional family relationships,
and so I've tried to build a lot of that,
with the help of my wife and kids, into the
(09:59):
stories as well.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
And I understand that your family are your biggest critics.
They proof read the books and very happy to give
your feedback.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Oh yes, they love to, and it's wonderful that they do.
And they know that I crave the truth from them,
and so I start all five kids read the books
and give me detailed, detailed notes. Patresea's reading it in
real time when I'm writing through a Google doc and
commenting daily on what she sees and ideas she has.
(10:28):
So it's a family affair. And then once I get
it in a place that the five kids are happy
with and that Patrese is happy with, then it's out
to a circle of friends who know those worlds and
who will see things and also delight in telling me
when I'm wrong about something.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
James, in twenty nineteen you joked that you would move
to New Zealand of Trump one and twenty twenty, is
that on the cards again? If he wins in November,
do we need to start looking for a place for you.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
It's funny you should talk about that. My wife and
I actually discussed it not long ago and said we'd
still love to because New Zealand offers well, I don't
have to tell people who know New Zealand extraordinary place
with an incredible variety of beautiful scenes and temperatures and elevations,
what a remarkable place, and you're lucky to live there.
(11:16):
But our grandkids are here, and so we'd have to
take the whole group to New Zealand, and we don't
see that happening. And so I've told people more recently,
look God forbid that Trump becomes the next American president,
and I'm increasingly optimistic that he won't be. But if
he were, I love my country but especially my family
too much to go any place.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
What would a Trump presidency mean for the Department of
Justice and law enforcement? Are you concerned about the threats there?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Very much? He is a person who is a threat
to the rule of law, was a threat to the
rule of law during his first four years. If he
got another four years, he would be a continuing threat,
in a more dangerous threat, because he'd be both smarter
and more interested in retribution. And Donald Trump's a person
(12:06):
whose promises you can't trust, but whose threats you should
listen too carefully, because he believes that a threat has
to be followed up on or the threatener appears weak.
And that's the great sin in his life, is to
appear weak. So I think it would be a great
threat to the rule of law generally, and to a
lawless president's interest in using the prosecutive and investigative power
(12:29):
of the Department of Justice and the FBI to go
after people.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Would you ever consider a return to a public role.
Was the unfinished business there? Or is writing fiction in
your future? Now?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
There is no unfinished business. I never thought I would
go back. I thought I was done in two thousand
and five and was very surprised when President Obama asked
me to go back and be FBI director. So I'm
pretty sure that we're done now, and there's no I
don't feel a hunger for it, and there really is
no unfinished business. Plenty of good people to serve in
(13:02):
the US government without me having to leave fiction.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Could the the end of your tenure at the FBI
ever be used as a sort of a subject for
future fiction?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Do you think?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yes? It's funny you should ask. I've resisted taking readers
to Washington because it was just too icky for me,
and the farther I get from it, the more comfortable
I feel taking the readers there. So I, with Patresa's help,
we've envisioned a trilogy in Washington, and so we will
(13:35):
take you there at some point, to the White House,
to the FBI, to the CIA, to secure rooms in Congress,
places that I spend a lot of time to tell stories,
that will be fun and take people inside those worlds
and not produce too much trauma for me.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
The good news is, though, I mean, I've fallen in
love with Nora. And the good news is, of course
at a third book is pretty much always finished.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yes, I submitted it last week to the publisher, and
I feel really good about it. It's focused on Nora's
battle against domestic extremism, white identity, white supremacy in the
United States, which will unfortunately not be a thing of
the past when the book comes out next year. And
so it's a topic that I care about a lot,
(14:21):
and it's a vehicle through which to tell some really
good stories.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
James Comey, thank you so much for your time. It's
been wonderful to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Oh, it's wonderful to talk to you too.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And that was former FBI directed James Comey. His new book,
Westport is in stores now.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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