Friday, March 29, 2024

James Comey Violated FBI policies with Memos on Trump discussions, IG report says

DOJ will not prosecute Comey over leaked Trump memos

The Department of Justice published the Inspector General’s report on former FBI director James Comey with notes on his meetings with President Trump. Julia Ainsley of NBC has more information about the report and the decision not to sue Comey.

James Comey has violated FBI policies with notes on Trump’s talks, according to the IG’s report

The official control agency of the Ministry of Justice concluded that the notes kept by Comey were actually “official FBI files”, and said that Comey had given a “dangerous example” with his actions.

The office stated that it “violated the applicable policies and its employment contract with the FBI by providing one of the unclassified memoranda containing official FBI information, including confidential investigation information, with instructions that the friend asks you to share the content of the note with a journalist. ”

In addition, the IG determined that Comey had kept copies of four notes (of the seven he had written) in a personal safe at home after his dismissal as director, and in doing so, “violated FBI policies and his employment contract by not informing the FBI that he had retained them or asking permission to keep them. ” And the IG said that Comey had violated the rules again “by providing copies … four notes he had kept at home for his three private lawyers without the FBI’s permission.”

Although the findings of the investigation were referred to the Department of Justice, the department denied the prosecution. But for Comey, who has cultivated the image of an indisputable and irreproachable leader since his dismissal in 2017, the review has highlighted his decision during the last weeks besieged at the helm of the country. police.

“Even when these employees believe that unauthorized disclosures can be made against their strongest personal convictions, the FBI is confident that it will not disclose confidential information.” Comey’s former director, Comey, did not assume that responsibility, “the report says.” By not safeguarding the confidential information obtained during his employment with the FBI, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey has given an example dangerous for the more than 35,000 current FBI employees. FBI – and thousands of other former FBI employees – Similarly, they have access or access to non-public information. ”

The Inspector General’s broader and independent review of possible surveillance violations by the intelligence community is ongoing. Earlier this month, it seemed that IG Michael Horowitz had referred Comey’s case to the Ministry of Justice for possible criminal prosecution, but that lawyers had chosen not to press charges, a source said. to Fox News that “it was not a closed call.”

Comey admitted to Congress in June 2017 that after his dismissal, he deliberately leaked several memoranda through an intermediary to ensure the appointment of a special council. The media storm that followed the leak was a defining moment that led to the appointment of special defender Robert Mueller.

The public’s outrage focused on Trut’s announcement in a memo that Trump had told him: “I hope he can leave that,” while former national security adviser Michael Flynn had lied about his contacts with the Russian government.
Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents in the White House.

Although Comey stated that he wrote the memoranda so that they did not contain classified information, the FBI later determined that two of these memoranda were classified information at the “sensitive” level.

And Comey’s notes included a lot of other secret information, including the “code name and true identity” of a confidential source, according to a presentation ordered by the Court by the Department of Justice earlier this year.

Comey has meticulously described the “foreign intelligence obtained from and by” the main human source, “indicating whether the FBI had begun to cover, under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the relevant” sources and methods “used by the FBI, as well as “information on the president’s foreign policy decisions,” according to the Department of Justice.

All this information is “currently and correctly classified,” said the general manager.

Mr. Horowitz publicly confirmed for the first time last year that his office was investigating Comey for his treatment of classified information related to the notes.

“I didn’t think it was part of an FBI file,” Bret Baier of Fox News said last year, referring to the memoranda. “It was my personal reminder … I always thought it was mine.

Comey added that he expected Horowitz to publish a report on the memoranda, “not on the treatment of classified information, because that

Mumtaz Khan
Mumtaz Khanhttps://www.ccdiscovery.com
Hi, I'm Mumtaz Khan. I'm a CCDiscovery reporter. After completing my master's degree in Mass Communication from the LLU, I obtained an internship in a local newspaper and worked as an editor. I also worked as a columnist for the local newspaper. I cover fun and community events for CC Discovery.

Related Articles