DOJ Concludes James Comey Violated FBI Policy

The DOJ has released a report concluding Former FBI Director James Comey violated tje FBI’s policy when he told his friend to provide copies of memos including sensitive information to a reporter.

I mean… DUH.

According to Daily Wire:

The report includes a laundry list of Comey’s violations related to the investigation into whether President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to steal the presidency. Despite the many violations, the DOJ declined to prosecute Comey for his actions.

“Comey’s actions with respect to the Memos violated Department and FBI policies concerning the retention, handling, and dissemination of FBI records and information, and violated the requirements of Comey’s FBI Employment Agreement,” the report says.

Clearly, he no longer has his job. But will the consequences of his actions extend beyond his firing?

The “memos” mentioned by the report refer to five separate memos Comey wrote within the first three months of the Trump administration, one phone call he had with Trump shortly before he was inaugurated, and one phone call with Trump after he became president. Comey did not write memos following the two phone calls.

Comey also “violated Department and FBI policies, and the terms of his FBI Employment Agreement, by retaining copies of Memos 2, 4, 6, and 7 after he was removed as Director, regardless of each Memo’s classification level,” the report continues. Comey was required to return all official FBI documents when he left office. Comey told the OIG that he considered the memos to be “personal records,” but the OIG found no legal basis for him to consider them so.

The OIG also faulted Comey for failing to “tell anyone from the FBI that he had retained copies of the Memos in his personal safe at home,” even though his chief of staff, associate deputy director, and three other officials went to his home “to inventory and remove all FBI property.”

Comey further violated Bureau policies when he sent a copy of a memo the former FBI director wrote the day after Michael Flynn resigned as Trump’s national security advisor to his friend with instructions to turn it over to a reporter for The New York Times. Comey had met with Trump that day and says in the memo that Trump asked him to “let this go,” referring to any criminal prosecution of Flynn over false statements he made regarding his conversations with the Russian ambassador. Comey also improperly sent copies of this memo and others to his attorneys.

“Comey violated FBI policy and the requirements of his FBI Employment Agreement when he chose this path,” the OIG report says. “By disclosing the contents of Memo 4, through [Daniel] Richman, to The New York Times, Comey made public sensitive investigative information related to an ongoing FBI investigation, information he had properly declined to disclose while still FBI Director during his March 20, 2017 congressional testimony.”

Basically he did EVERYTHING WRONG.

The report says that Comey was not authorized to disclose the statements he attributed to Trump.

The OIG report states that Comey also failed to immediately alert the FBI to the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.

The OIG slams Comey in its conclusion, saying the former FBI director “failed to live up to” the responsibility to protect sensitive law enforcement information.

“By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees—and the many thousands more former FBI employees—who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information,” the report concludes.

The report reminds readers that the OIG had “previously faulted Comey for acting unilaterally and inconsistent with Department policy.”

Comey responded to the report on Twitter, refusing to take ANY responsibility for his wrongdoings:

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

WTH is he even talking about?