Ex-FBI chief James Comey believed the seven memos he’d composed summarizing his conversations with President Trump were personal papers — but he was apparently the only one, with even his inner circle saying they were “stunned” and “shocked” by his leak of a memo to the press.
“Members of Comey’s senior leadership team used the adjectives ‘surprised,’ ‘stunned,’ ‘shocked,’ and ‘disappointment’ to describe their reactions to learning that Comey acted on his own to provide the contents of Memo 4, through [lawyer Daniel] Richman, to a reporter,” Inspector General Michael Hoꦰrowitz’s on his actions stated.
“None of the members of Comey’s senior𓄧 leadership team agreed with or defended Comey’s view that these Memos were personal in nature.”
Comey’s inner circle included former FBI lawyers Lisa Page and James A. Baker, along with ex-senior agent Peter Strzok, who al💯ong with Page was kicked out of the bureau after anti-Trump messages they’d exchanged were made public.
They were assigned to scru🧜tinize the memos that෴ he’d written and determined that at least two of the seven included classified information.
The IG 💧wrote that when Comey gave the memos to Richman so that he could leak them to the media, he had violated the bureau’s rules.
“The unauthorized disclosure of this information—🎃information that Comey knew only by virtue of his position as FBI Director—violated the terms of his FBI Employment Agreement and the FBI’s Prepublication Review Policy,” the report said.
Horowitz referred his findings to lawyers🌜 a🉐t the Department of Justice, who concluded that Comey had not done anything that warranted criminal prosecution.
But the report said he set a “dangerous example” for other FBI personnel.