James Comey Under Fire for Leaking Classified Memos
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Former FBI Director James Comey has questions to answer, after a report on Friday revealed he leaked at least two memos documenting his conversations with President Trump that contained classified information.
Comey leaked at least two memos with classified information to his friend, former federal prosecutor and Columbia University Professor Daniel C. Richman, documenting his private conversations with President Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal.
His leaking of classified information is currently under investigation by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog.
According to the report, Comey himself redacted elements of one of the memos that he “knew to be classified” before handing it over to Richman.
He reportedly determined that the other memo contained “no classified information,” but after he left the FBI, officials upgraded it to “confidential.”
Last year, Comey implied to senators during a June 8 hearing that the memos he gave to Richman on May 15 after he was fired on May 9 were not classified.
During that hearing, he said he wrote his memos in a way so that they would not be classified, so that the memos could be shared more easily among investigators and within the government, as Breitbart News has reported.
Comey said at the hearing, “If I write it such a way that doesn’t include anything of a classification, that would make it easier for to us discuss within the FBI and the government, and to hold onto it in a way that makes it accessible to us.”
However, his redaction of one of the memos before giving it to his friend shows he knew it was classified.
During that hearing, he also admitted he gave memos to Richman to give to the media for the purpose of prompting a special counsel investigation into Trump.
A source close to Trump’s legal team told Breitbart News at the time that they were planning to file complaints against Comey with the Justice Department inspector general. The DOJ IG’s office had pointed to an existing investigation on Comey, but did not say whether it would be expanded to include the leaking of the memos.
WSJ‘s report indicated that the inspector general took up the investigation. Whether the investigation will lead to a criminal referral is unclear.
Comey’s leaking of classified information puts him in the same boat as former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who sent classified material over her unsecured private email server. She argued that the material was not marked classified at the time she sent it, although investigators later found that not to be true.
The revelation of Comey’s leaking of classified information comes after the Justice Department handed his memos documenting his private conversations with Trump to House lawmakers on Thursday.
Of the seven that were handed over, four contained classified information. Comey apparently gave his friend at least two of those classified memos, with only one allegedly redacted.
The inspector general has the ability to refer Comey to the Justice Department for criminal charges, as he did with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe earlier this week.
Trump indicated that he would not let Comey’s leaking go lightly.
“James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?” he tweeted Thursday evening.