WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump tweeted disdain for former FBI Director James Comey on Friday morning after the Justice Department Inspector General released a report that said Comey violated DoJ and FBI policies by leaking memos documenting conversations he had with Trump.
The disastrous IG Report on James Comey shows, in the strongest of terms, how unfairly I, and tens of millions of great people who support me, were treated. Our rights and liberties were illegally stripped away by this dishonest fool. We should be given our stolen time back?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2019
The fact that James Comey was not prosecuted for the absolutely horrible things he did just shows how fair and reasonable Attorney General Bill Barr is. So many people and experts that I have watched and read would have taken an entirely different course. Comey got Lucky!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2019
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released the report on Thursday.
“We conclude that Comey’s retention, handling, and dissemination of certain Memos violated Department and FBI policies, and his (Comey’s) FBI Employment Agreement,” the report says.
The report said the leaked memos did not contain classified information and that DoJ decided against prosecuting Comey.
Comey defended his actions in a series of tweets.
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
And to all those who’ve spent two years talking about me “going to jail” or being a “liar and a leaker”—ask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president.
— James Comey (@Comey) August 29, 2019
Republicans seized on the report. They pointed to it as proof that the FBI and DoJ exhibited bias in the Trump-Russia probe.
This is the first of what I expect will be several more ugly and damning rebukes of senior DOJ and FBI officials regarding their actions and biases toward the Trump campaign of 2016.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) August 29, 2019
🚨#BREAKING: Read @Jim_Jordan’s statement on DOJ IG Report Regarding James Comey pic.twitter.com/CKF5FTQUBW
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) August 29, 2019
Now we know why Comey didn’t want to prosecute Clinton—he didn’t see a problem mishandling sensitive information. After clearing her, he did it too!
Comey, like Clinton, thinks he’s above the law.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) August 29, 2019
What's most striking about this IG report on James Comey: his actions weren't the result of carelessness or an oversight of rules. This was deliberate and intentional.
He broke FBI protocol, knowing what he was doing. And it seems he did so for the purpose of targeting Trump.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) August 29, 2019
On June 8, 2017, Comey told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that he authorized the leak of a memo documenting a meeting he had had with Trump four months earlier in which the president allegedly asked him to drop the Bureau’s investigation into former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
“My judgment was that I needed to get that out into the public square,” Comey testified.
Comey said the leak was coordinated through a Columbia Journalism professor and that the reason for the leak was to highlight the need for the appointment of a special prosecutor.
The New York Times first reported the existence of the memo in May 2017. Several days after the Times report, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, under intense bipartisan political pressure, appointed former FBI director Robert S. Muller III as independent counsel in the Trump-Russia probe.
National security attorney Sean Bigley told TMN the IG report clearly shows that Comey disregarded department policy.
“It highlights in excruciating detail how he (Comey) repeatedly violated FBI and DOJ policy on protected information handling when he was supposed to be setting the example.”
Bigley added: “We’ve seen this time and again in Washington: a do as I say, not as I do mentality on security from those at the top. No wonder he exonerated Hillary.”
