Posted on 06/10/2017 4:24:46 AM PDT by markomalley
During his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, former FBI director James Comey revealed that he was the source of leaked memos about his conversations with Donald Trump surrounding the Russia investigation. Comey explained that he shared the memos with his friend, a professor at Columbia University, who then shared them with the New York Times, actions that may violate the FBI’s own employee agreement.
“My judgment was I needed to get [the memos] out into the public square,” Comey said. “So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. I didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”
By his own account, it seems that Comey may not have followed the agency’s employee agreement, which places numerous restrictions on the use of information or documents acquired during an individual’s employment by the FBI. Paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 of the FBI employment agreement appear to cover Comey’s distribution of content he says he created on government property in his capacity as a government official:
Paragraph 2 states that all materials acquired in connection with an employee’s official duties are property of the U.S. government and that such materials must be surrendered to the FBI upon an employee’s separation from the agency. Paragraph 3 states that employees are prohibited from releasing “any information acquired by virtue of my official employment” to “unauthorized individual[s] without prior official written authorization by the FBI.” Paragraph 4 of the agreement requires FBI employees, prior to disclosing or publishing information acquired during their employment, to submit the information to FBI authorities for review to determine whether it is authorized for public release.
So if Comey followed protocol and surrendered all government property, including the memos he produced in his capacity as an FBI employee, it would have been impossible for him to provide the memos to his friend. The fact that he was able to provide hard copies of the memos to both his friend and special counsel Robert Mueller suggests that Comey did not surrender them to authorities as required by the FBI employment agreement.
Page two of the agreement lists the types of information disclosures which are strictly prohibited. Included in the list of information that may not be released without prior written approval by the FBI is “information that relates to any sensitive operational details or the substantive merits of any ongoing or open investigation or case.” While the agreement states that unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a violation of the contract, information does not have to be classified in order to be prohibited from unauthorized disclosure. Comey claims that his memos were unclassified.
Comey’s claim that it would not have been proper to publicly disclose that Trump was not a target of any FBI investigation because the investigation was ongoing and facts could change flies in the face of his decision to provide to his friends records of his meetings about the investigation with the president. If he could not publicly note that Trump was not a target of an ongoing investigation, then why was he able to release FBI records related to that investigation to his friends for the purpose of having those details leaked to the public via the news media? In light of the FBI’s prohibition on publicly sharing documents or information related to ongoing investigations absent prior written authorization, Comey’s dual explanations make little sense.
The FBI employment agreement states that violating any of the included terms may result in termination, civil liability, revocation of security clearances, or even criminal sanctions.
When mommy taught James to share, I don’t think this is what she meant.
Yesterday on FOX it was unclear whether a FBI Director himself is required to sign one of these employment agreements and if Comey did sign one, where is it?
I think it might violate the espionage act. And I don’t give a rat’s rear end if he didn’t know if it was wrong or not.
Comey is now claiming he no longer has the original memo. So we really don’t know if it had any classified information in it or not. He says he gave it to the Prof who is now in hiding.
Comey leaked to the public for exactly the same reason that Reality Winner did. "Get Trump."
Imagine what he would have done to a subordinate who leaked about him the way he leaked about the president.
A couple points. The fact that he no longer has the memo, but he had it after being fired, is a sign that he "wiped" his computer. At least one memo was created on a computer, and everybody knows that "sharing" digital material such as documents, notes and e-mails is fundamentally an act of copying. The original exists until it is deliberately erased.
Comey and Mueller worked together on evidence destruction, or Comey did evidence destruction on his own. I draw Mueller in based on Comey's testinony that Comey no longer has the memos, he gave them to Mueller.
As for classification, I totally agree. Material created that memorializes a private conversation with the president is presumed classified. It is up to Comey to demonstrate that it is not, and his conclusory assertion doesn't cut it. The FBI didn;t publicly admit until recently that it had Flynn under investigation, that was a leak. Comey's memo CONFIRMS that Flynn was under investigation.
When Trump yesterday said Comey is a leaker “but that’s okay, we want to move on...” was he giving Comey a pass as he did Hill and Bill at the time of the inauguration?
If so, I think that’s not a very good look considering they have a 25yo contractor in jail right now on the same charge.
I got to thinking, if Comey surrendered his computer to Mueller, then it is possible that Comey no longer has direct access to his memos, and this feat accomplished by surrender of property, not by destruction of a digital record.
This leak is an interesting piece to the story. So far..it seems we dont know if comey had to sign it or if he can create exceptions by virtue of his title.
I hope someone gets to the bottom of it and releases details
He leaked the memo in a fishing attempt to try to determine if there were actually tapes - wanted badly to know how much he could lie and get away with.
Who appointed Mueller as Special Counsel? Sessions? Whomever did it had better un-appoint him ASAP. He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing and we can’t afford to deal with any more chaos. There’s no crime; there should be no investigation/”matter”.
All private conversations ..even when you make notes later ..are not considered classified just by virtue that it involves Trump is my understanding...but I have no regs..or case law to point to.
No, Rosenstein.
-- Whomever did it had better un-appoint him ASAP. --
Political suicide until Mueller acts in a way that justifies removal.
I agree that as a practical matter, the reason for his appointment is gone. But as a political and formal matter, there are FBI files that Comey started with the purpose of taking out the president, and those files have to be orderly closed. Mueller has those files.
I think the political ramifications of un-appointing Mueller are obvious. it would be worse than the fallout from firing Comey, and firing Comey was totally justified, see Rosenstein memo.
We don't even know if there is an "original" memo, meaning that he might have created something only after he was fired, not immediately after his meeting with the president.
Yes but, Comey agreed to spill the beans in the coming trials of Hillary et al.
I think given the Clinton propensity to murder witnesses, Comey’s very life is at risk
Both he and his friend should charged with treason.
You did notice my use of the word "presumed," I presume.
I'm sure there are plenty of private conversation about totally mundane matters. What do you want for dinner? Obviously not classified.
James Comey was fired while he was in California. Before he was fired, DoJ personnel went to his office and “sealed” it.
Where did Comey write the memos?
Are those personal notes he wrote at home?
Did he write them at his office?
If he wrote them at his office, how did he retrieve them after being fired?
Where and how did he file them?
Did Comey keep copies of his official FBI notes at home?
Where did he keep them?
Did Comey contemporaneously reveal the existence of these memos, and their content, to other FBI personnel?
If Comey signed one of these forms, he is in clear violation.
What is the punishment for violation of this agreement?
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