More than half of the memos fired FBI Director James Comey wrote during his private conversations with President Trump have been determined to contain classified information.
FBI policy forbids any agent from releasing classified information or any information from ongoing investigations. All records created by agents during official duties are also considered to be government property.
The Hill reports:
More than half of the memos former FBI chief James Comey wrote as personal recollections of his conversations with President Trump about the Russia investigation have been determined to contain classified information, according to interviews with officials familiar with the documents.
This revelation raises the possibility that Comey broke his own agency’s rules and ignored the same security protocol that he publicly criticized Hillary Clinton for in the waning days of the 2016 presidential election.
Comey insisted in his testimony he believed his personal memos were unclassified, though he hinted one or two documents he created might have been contained classified information.
But when the seven memos Comey wrote regarding his nine conversations with Trump about Russia earlier this year were shown to Congress in recent days, the FBI claimed all were, in fact, deemed to be government documents.
Four of the memos had markings making clear they contained information classified at the “secret” or “confidential” level, according to officials directly familiar with the matter.
A spokesman for the FBI on Sunday declined to comment.
Congressional investigators had already begun examining whether Comey’s creation, storage and sharing of the memos violated FBI rules, but the revelation that four of the seven memos included some sort of classified information opens a new door of inquiry into whether classified information was mishandled, improperly stored or improperly shared.
As TGP previously reported, fired FBI Director James Comey told the Senate Intel Committee that he asked a friend of his to leak to a memo he kept regarding his conversation with President Trump to the press.
Comey admitted this after Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), asked him why he kept the memos. She then asked if he ever shared any of them outside the DOJ.
Daniel C. Richman confirmed to the Washington Examiner that he was Comey’s friend at Columbia. He has been referred to in the New York Times as a “longtime confidant and friend of Mr. Comey’s,” and his bio at Columbia’s website lists him as an “adviser to FBI Director James B. Comey.”
Chris Farrell, Director of Investigations and Research for conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch spoke with Fox News’ Lou Dobbs about Comey’s testimony following his hearing.
Farrell also told Dobbs that Comey’s home should have been raided because his notes are property of the U.S. government and that he had absconded with them:
“This admission today is stunning. I would argue that Mr. Comey’s notes are property of the United States government and that he has absconded with them. Frankly if I were Attorney General, about 20 minutes after his confession today in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Deputy U.S. Marshals would have raided his home and office. As well as Mr. Richman at Columbia Law School.
Those records and documents must be recovered. Mr. Comey had no business releasing them. It’s an extraordinary admission on his part. It’s lawless. We wonder why we have leakers in the government when the FBI Director is playing these little games for political points or because his tender ego is bruised. This is outrageous.
He took an oath to the Constitution and he’s betrayed it in no uncertain terms.”
Video of Comey admitting he gave his friend the memo to leak to the press:
