Inspector General Report: James Comey violated FBI policies with memos on Trump discussions

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Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees.’— IG report. So where are the indictments?Is it any wonder Comey has been squealing like a pig for the past two years trying to distracti and divert from his crimes.

IG Horowitz first publicly confirmed last year that his office was investigating Comey for his handling of classified information related to the memos.

James Comey violated FBI policies with memos on Trump discussions, IG report says

By Gregg Ree, FOX News, August 29, 2019:

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A scathing inspector general report released Thursday said that fired FBI Director James Comey violated bureau policies by drafting, leaking and retaining memos documenting discussions with President Trump.

The Justice Department’s official watchdog concluded that the memos Comey kept were in fact “official FBI records,” and said Comey set a “dangerous example” with his actions

READ THE IG REPORT ON COMEY

The office said he “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.”

Further, the IG determined that Comey kept copies of four memos (out of the total seven he drafted) in a personal safe at home after his removal as director — and in doing so also “violated FBI policies and his FBI Employment Agreement by failing to notify the FBI that he had retained them, or to seek authorization to retain them.” And the IG said Comey again violated the rules “by providing copies … of the four memos he had kept in his home to his three private attorneys without FBI authorization.”

Matthew Whitaker on potential IG report on James Comey

While the findings of the probe were forwarded to the DOJ, the department has declined prosecution. But for Comey, who has cultivated the image of a by-the-book and irreproachable leader since his termination in 2017, the review shined a harsh light on his decisionmaking in the final, beleaguered weeks of his tenure at the head of the nation’s top law enforcement agency.

In a pointed passage, the report faulted Comey for disclosing sensitive information.

“[E]ven when these employees believe that their most strongly-held personal convictions might be served by an unauthorized disclosure, the FBI depends on them not to disclose sensitive information. Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility,” the report said. “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.”

For his part, Comey zeroed in on a section that said he didn’t leak classified material directly to the media — and urged his critics to tell him “sorry we lied about you.”

The inspector general’s separate, broader review of potential intelligence community surveillance abuses remains ongoing. Earlier this month, it emerged that IG Michael Horowitz had referred Comey’s case to the DOJ for a possible criminal prosecution, but that lawyers opted against bringing charges — with one source telling Fox News it “wasn’t a close call.”

Comey admitted to Congress in June 2017 that, after he was fired, he purposefully leaked several memos through an intermediary to ensure that a special counsel would be appointed. The media firestorm that followed the leak proved a watershed moment that led to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment.

Public outrage centered on the news that Comey wrote in one of his memos that Trump had told him, “I hope you can let this go,” amid reports that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had lied to the FBI and senior White House officials about his contacts with Russia’s government.

‘Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees.’

— IG report, on Comey’s actions

Flynn later pleaded guilty to one count of lying to FBI agents in the White House.

Although Comey said he wrote the memos so that they would not contain classified information, two of Comey’s memos were later determined by the FBI to contain information classified at the “sensitive” level.

And Comey’s memos included a slew of other secretive information, including the “code name and true identity” of a confidential source, according to a court-ordered filing by the Justice Department earlier this year.

Comey meticulously outlined “foreign intelligence information obtained from and through” the key human source, “information about whether the FBI initiated coverage through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on a particular individual,” relevant “sources and methods” used in the FBI’s investigation, as well as “information concerning the President’s foreign policy decisionmaking,” according to the DOJ.

All of that information is “currently and properly classified,” the DOJ said.

Horowitz first publicly confirmed last year that his office was investigating Comey for his handling of classified information related to the memos.

“I didn’t consider it part of an FBI file,” Comey told Fox News’ Bret Baier last year, referring to the memos. “It was my personal aide-memoire…I always thought of it as mine.”

Comey added that he expected Horowitz to issue a report about the memos, “not on the handling of classified information, because that’s frivolous, but on: Did I comply with policy? Did I comply with my employment agreement?”

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lostlegends
lostlegends
4 years ago

Now hear this! There is one law for the rulers and one law for the serfs. Understand?

CharlieSeattle
CharlieSeattle
4 years ago
Reply to  lostlegends

Yes but ‘rulers’ use lawyers and ‘serfs’ use axes and pitch forks.

Suresh
Suresh
4 years ago

Soros and his jihadi friends are behind all the mamupilations with their corrupt demonrat lackeys.

And Finally Vatican Bishop confesses: “Senior Catholic officials are being paid off by George Sor-ass to promote mass Muslim migration into Europe” https://tinyurl.com/y7hllebo

You won’t hear it from corrupt Left/Liberal media

Bill
Bill
4 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

Leftism and Islam: both totalitarians.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago

two of Comey’s memos were later determined by the FBI to contain information classified at the “sensitive” level.

This is playing with words. I don’t think “sensitive” is part of the classification taxonomy. Sensitive documents are generally For Official Use Only, so should not to be made public, but they are unclassified. So something may be “classified” as sensitive, but it is in fact unclassified.

Bill
Bill
4 years ago

Cronyism at work. He’s being rewarded for letting HRC off by saying she had ‘no intent’.

MAS
MAS
4 years ago

These creeps need to be jailed. Cusses and spits…

Mark Steiner
Mark Steiner
4 years ago
Reply to  MAS

Comey is still walking – and talking – and smiling.

MAS
MAS
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark Steiner

They all are and it’s gasoline on the fire. There is no justice and it seems nobody is interested in even trying…

Mark Steiner
Mark Steiner
4 years ago
Reply to  MAS

Indeed.
-the other MAS

Drew the Infidel
Drew the Infidel
4 years ago
Reply to  MAS

And given the Epstein treatment, no?

DVader
DVader
4 years ago
Reply to  MAS

Jailed for what? Making a record that Trump was trying to interfere with an investigation?

MAS
MAS
4 years ago
Reply to  DVader

I said “creeps” as in plural. How about conspiracy to commit perjury to the FISA court for starters?

DVader
DVader
4 years ago
Reply to  MAS

I expect that will turn out to be another myth/lie by the same idiots who claimed Comey leaked classified information and lied to Congress.

santashandler
santashandler
4 years ago

“Comey added that he expected Horowitz to issue a report about the memos, “not on the handling ofclassified information, because that’s frivolous, but on: Did I comply with policy? Did I comply with my employment agreement?” Sure he does. For how many years will this public charade go back and forth. All the while Comey is free to talk about what he did, with no consequences. Heck, hes probably having a round of golf tomorrow with the IG. You know, so they can ‘talk about it.’

Mark Steiner
Mark Steiner
4 years ago
Reply to  santashandler

We keep being told by the experts appearing on Fox with Hannity, et. al. that more is coming … the repetition of this stuff is nauseating.

santashandler
santashandler
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark Steiner

Yes, it’s all a smoke screen. We’re being sold a load of garbage. Why now with this report? Why did it take the IG this long to figure out what the average American knew two years ago. Comey won’t even get the equivalent of a parking ticket out of this.

CharlieSeattle
CharlieSeattle
4 years ago
Reply to  santashandler

https://nypost.com/2019/08/29/james-comey-violated-fbi-policies-by-leaking-classified-information-doj-watchdog/

In an interview with Horowitz for his investigation, Comey tried to justify his squirreling away of the documents by considering them “personal records rather than FBI records,” according to the report.

That argument, Horowitz wrote, “finds no support in the law and is wholly incompatible with . . . the terms of Comey’s FBI Employment Agreement.”

Comey added that he went rogue out of a “love” for his country, the DOJ and the FBI — a notion Horowitz called misguided at best.

“Were current or former FBI employees to follow the former director’s example and disclose sensitive information in service of their own strongly held personal convictions, the FBI would be unable to dispatch its law-enforcement duties properly,” the inspector general wrote.

Horowitz had referred Comey for potential prosecution, but the DOJ declined to bring charges.

………….Ops, Trump forgot to drain the DOJ swamp completely!

The next shoe to drop may be the conclusion of an inquiry by John Durham, a Connecticut federal prosecutor tasked by Attorney General William Barr to examine the origins of the Russia investigation.

santashandler
santashandler
4 years ago
Reply to  CharlieSeattle

Yes, the DOJ declined to bring charges. Maybe by 2088, the DOJ will find ‘evidence’ that Comey acted illgally and will bring charges.

Drew the Infidel
Drew the Infidel
4 years ago

This IG report makes some unflattering remarks about self-appointed St. Comey but there are two more IG investigations in the offing. As the old saying goes, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Stephen Honig
Stephen Honig
4 years ago

Why isn’t Trump having Barr prosecute him?

DVader
DVader
4 years ago

Indict him for what? The report admitted he didn’t violate any laws. For that matter, it was a stretch to claim he violated FBI policy. https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-comey-email-report-really-says

Kwitcherbellyakin
Kwitcherbellyakin
4 years ago

There was collusion, but it was to get Hillary elected, which was viewed by Comey as a higher goal. Hillary got her only elected job because JFK Jr. died in a plane crash, and a replacement was needed immediately. He arranged for Crown Heights Jews to support her, and it worked.
But Hillary would not go away and let the matter become history. She and perhaps ber benefactors paid for all sorts of plots against Trump.
President Trump ran on a platform and wants to get his promises kept. He has little time to waste on fools. He could go after Comey, but that process would paralyze Congress. That would slow down his efforts to keep his promises.
Congress works because the American people send delegates to represent THEM from every state. We expect those people to be reasonable and experienced in “give and take” politics. Instead, they are lining up along party lines and will vote against common sense items, just to muddle.
It appears that Trump will avoid the drama of it all in favor of common sense and prioritization. Comey could have been the key to unlocking treachery, but it would be too time-consuming and not worth the effort.
Exposing what Comey actually did is good enough because now we know what kind of a man he is, and will never be trusted again. And no, I won’t buy his book.

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