Former FBI chief Comey officially joins Twitter – as himself

Former FBI Director James Comey has blown his own cover on Twitter.

Comey, who in May was fired by President Donald Trump — sparking the continuing Russia probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller — updated his Twitter account Monday to put it under his name, with the handle @Comey. He had previously used the name Reinhold Niebuhr, a reference to the late U.S. theologian and intellectual, with the handles @FormerBu and @projectexile7.

In his first official tweet, Comey wrote: "Here's my new handle. Glad to be part of the Twitterverse. Grateful to Reinhold for the cover these last few years."

Part of the reason Comey is now using his real name appears to be to help promote a book he's writing. Comey's new banner includes a close-up photo and a promotion for the book, coming in the spring of 2018, titled "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership."

Comey has tweeted 14 times since joining the social network in February 2014. He has nearly 300,000 followers and he's following 19 accounts. The number of people following Comey began to soar in March after a journalist at Gizmodo tracked down the previously unreported @projectexile7 account and attributed it to Comey.