Former FBI Director James Comey plans to speak to Amazon employees on Monday at 10 a.m. in Seattle as part of his ongoing book tour, sources with knowledge of the event told The Intercept.
Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty,” has already drawn the furious attention of President Donald Trump, who has simultaneously been battling on Twitter with Amazon, its CEO Jeff Bezos, and Bezos’s newspaper, the Washington Post.
Trump has repeatedly slammed Amazon for unfair competition by skirting state sales tax laws and has accused the company of milking the U.S. Postal Service. He regularly refers to the Post as the “Amazon Washington Post.”
Amazon does not own the Washington Post, Bezos does, but Trump does not draw that distinction.
Comey is speaking at a semi-regular event at the Amazon headquarters known as a “fishbowl.” A spokesperson for Amazon wasn’t immediately available to comment.
Comey’s decision to take his book tour directly to Amazon only promises to heighten the tensions.
Top photo: FBI Director James Comey testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 28, 2016, in Washington, D.C.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
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IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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