Comey Faulted for Breaching FBI Policy in Handling Trump Memos

(Bloomberg) -- James Comey violated policies in handling memos that he wrote to document interactions with President Donald Trump, according to the Justice Department’s watchdog, who also found that the former FBI director didn’t disclose classified information.

“Comey violated department and FBI policies pertaining to the retention, handling, and dissemination of FBI records and information,” Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded in a report released on Thursday.

Horowitz referred Comey for criminal prosecution, but the Justice Department declined to charge him. The former chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who Trump has frequently denounced, emphasized on Twitter that the inspector general 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,” Comey added.

Still, the long-anticipated report offers a damaging assessment of actions Comey took after he was fired by Trump in May 2017.

Trump tweeted on Thursday that Comey “should be ashamed of himself!”

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham added in a statement that “because Comey shamefully leaked information to the press -- in blatant violation of FBI policies -- the Nation was forced to endure the baseless politically motivated, two-year witch hunt. ”

The FBI determined that two memos Comey wrote -- but didn’t leak -- contained information classified at the “SECRET” level, and that two others contained small amounts of information classified at the “CONFIDENTIAL” level.

“Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility,” according to the report. “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.”

Trump’s Conversations

Comey has said he felt compelled to document his interactions and conversations with Trump because of their unique and often startling nature. In one memo, Comey said Trump told him during a private dinner that he needed and expected loyalty from the FBI director.

According to another memo, Trump asked Comey if he could see his way to drop an investigation into Michael Flynn, who had served briefly as Trump’s national security adviser.

Comey has said he authorized the contents of an unclassified memo to be shared with the media in the hopes that it would lead to the appointment of a special counsel. Following the leak, the Justice Department appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate actions by Trump and those close to him, including contacts with Russians who interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign and possible obstruction of justice.

Mueller secured convictions of a number of figures close to Trump -- including a guilty plea from Flynn for lying to investigators.

Despite Trump’s frequent condemnation of the investigation as a “witch hunt,” the special counsel said he couldn’t reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice and said there was insufficient evidence to conclude that those around Trump conspired in Russia’s election interference despite multiple contacts between Russians and figures in Trump’s campaign.

‘Disgraceful’: Republican

Republicans seized on the inspector general’s report to bash Comey.

“His actions were disgraceful and part of a wider effort within the Obama Justice Department to undermine President Trump,” said Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

But supporters of Comey came to his defense on Thursday, citing the context for his actions at the time.

“Comey did what he did because the president was actively trying to dismantle DOJ’s normal way of operating,” former Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller tweeted. “The IG has basically faulted Comey for speeding on his way to tell the village that a fire was coming.”

According to the report, Comey kept four of seven personal memos he wrote about conversations with the president in a safe at his home and violated FBI policy by failing to notify the bureau that he retained them.

“Comey also failed to fulfill his obligation to immediately alert the FBI about his disclosures to his private attorneys once he became aware that the FBI, after Comey’s removal, had determined that one of the memos included several words, the names of foreign countries being discussed by the President, that were classified at the CONFIDENTIAL level,” according to a summary of the report issued by the inspector general.

--With assistance from Billy House.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert, Justin Blum

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