Inspector general finds Comey violated policy on Trump memos, DOJ declines prosecution

Posted By: Staff
August 29, 2019 @ 10:35 am
ABC Politics

Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC

Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department’s inspector general on Thursday released a report scrutinizing fired FBI Director James Comey’s handling of memos he wrote detailing his interactions with President Donald Trump, concluding Comey violated FBI policies.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz first revealed in June 2018 that his office was investigating Comey’s decision to reveal the memos to a friend following his May 2017 firing, who later shared the contents of the memos with a reporter.

“The OIG determined that Comey violated applicable policies and his FBI Employment Agreement by providing one of the unclassified memos that contained official FBI information, including sensitive investigative information, to his friend with instructions for the friend to share the contents of the memo with a reporter,” the IG’s office said in a statement.

“Upon completing its investigation, the OIG provided its factual findings to the Justice Department for a prosecutorial decision regarding Comey’s conduct, as required by the Inspector General Act. After reviewing the matter, the DOJ declined prosecution,” the statement said.

Comey has publicly said he considered the memos as personal materials, but said prior to sharing them, he made select redactions of information that could be considered classified. According to the report, however, the FBI later determined that two memos contained information deemed ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ and two others that contained information that could be classified as ‘SECRET.’

The report also notes, though, that that the IG “found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the Memos to members of the media.”

Comey tweeted his reaction to the report, calling out “those who defamed me” and suggested his handling of the memos would result in his prosecution.

DOJ IG "found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media." I don’t need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a “sorry we lied about you” would be nice.

— James Comey (@Comey) August 29, 2019

And to all those who’ve spent two years talking about me “going to jail” or being a “liar and a leaker”—ask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president.

— James Comey (@Comey) August 29, 2019

Comey has said he drafted the seven memos detailing his interactions with President Trump out of concern that Trump might lie about their interactions.

Over several months before his eventual firing, Comey documented several instances that became key episodes in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Trump obstructed justice.

One such memo recounted a private Oval Office meeting during which Comey said Trump urged him to drop the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Following his firing, Comey told Congress he revealed his memos in order to prompt the appointment of a special counsel, and after a tweet from President Trump that said Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”