Donald Trump attacks fired FBI chief Comey and accuses him of being a 'leaker'

'Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication,' President says

Mr Trump has said in previous interviews that he fired Mr Comey after concluding that reports about his campaign's ties were 'made up' (AP)

Donald Trump has accused fired FBI chief James Comey of being a “leaker” after his dramatic appearance at a Senate hearing in which he bluntly accused the White House of spreading "lies, plain and simple".

The President, tweeting less than 24 hours after Mr Comey gave his testimony on Capitol Hill, said he had secured “total and complete vindication”.

He also referred to "so many false statements and lies" after Mr Comey boldly laid bare months of distrust of the President.

The former FBI director, who was fired last month, used his testimony to say he had "no doubt" Mr Trump had fired him because of his department's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.

“I take the President at his word that I was fired because of the Russia investigation,” Mr Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a public hearing. “Something about the way I was conducting it, the President felt, created pressure on him he wanted to relieve.”

He added: “I was fired in some way to change…the way the Russian investigation was being conducted. That is a very big deal.”

Friday morning’s tweet is the President’s first response to Mr Comey’s testimony, having earlier left it to his personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, to comment.

In a statement released on Thursday, Mr Kasowitz also attacked the sacked intelligence chief for his alleged leaks, saying: “Mr Comey admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorised disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the President.

“The leaks of this privileged information began no later than March 2017 when friends of Mr Comey have stated he disclosed to them the conversations he had with the President during their January 27, 2017 dinner and February 14, 2017 White House meeting.

“We will leave it the appropriate authorities to determine whether this leaks [sic] should be investigated along with all those others being investigated.”

At one point, Mr Comey appeared to dare Mr Trump to release recordings of their conversations, a prospect the President once alluded to in a tweet.

"Lordy, I hope there are tapes," Mr Comey said.