Report: Comey’s Leaked Memos Included Classified Information
Did Comey pull a Hillary?
![https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wirfLxHup0g](https://c4.legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/James-Comey-Senate-Testimony-Memo-Leaks-e1515078497728.jpg)
Well, well. What do we have here?
According to a Friday report in the Wall Street Journal, Former FBI Director Comey passed now classified information to people outside of the government who did not have proper security clearances.
A total of four memos were passed to Daniel Richman, a friend of Comey’s and a former federal prosecutor who is now a professor at Columbia Law School, people familiar with the matter said,” reports the WSJ. When Comey passed the memos to Richman, three memos were considered unclassified. The fourth was.
Comey redacted information he knew would be classified from one of four memos. This memo was classified “confidential” after Comey left the FBI.
At least two of the memos that former FBI Director James Comey gave to a friend outside of the government contained information that officials now consider classified, according to people familiar with the matter, prompting a review by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog.
Of those two memos, Mr. Comey himself redacted elements of one that he knew to be classified to protect secrets before he handed the documents over to his friend. He determined at the time that another memo contained no classified information, but after he left the Federal Bureau of Investigation, bureau officials upgraded it to “confidential,” the lowest level of classification.
The Justice Department inspector general is now conducting an investigation into classification issues related to the Comey memos, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Comey has said he considered the memos personal rather than government documents. He has told Congress that he wrote them and authorized their release to the media “as a private citizen.”
Mr. Comey gave four total memos to his friend Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who is now a professor at Columbia Law School, people familiar with the matter said. Three were considered unclassified at the time and one was classified.
As FBI director, Mr. Comey had the legal authority to determine what bureau information was classified and what wasn’t. Once he left government, however, the determination fell to other officials.
Before the WSJ report was released, Trump needled Comey on Twitter:
James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 20, 2018
So General Michael Flynn’s life can be totally destroyed while Shadey James Comey can Leak and Lie and make lots of money from a third rate book (that should never have been written). Is that really the way life in America is supposed to work? I don’t think so!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 20, 2018
Out promoting his new book, Comey has been given a national platform to criticize Trump, who fired him last year.
Hillary sent classified information through a private email address and bathroom server for years without consequence. Even her housekeeper had access to classified and sensitive information.
So, Comey should be just fine.
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As someone who held a Top Secret clearance for about 10 years, I am well aware of both the tendency to over classify information, and the potential damage which can and has occurred with inadvertent release of something which really matters. While the head of an agency or department does have some statutory leeway in dealing with classified material, there is absolutely no evidence in the “matter” of either Clinton or Comey which indicates it was used in any meaningful way. While there is no chance that either will go to prison or even trial, both need to be investigated in the manner of an ordinary employee, and be faced with a situation where they plea bargain by admitting their guilt and irresponsibility.
You should also know, because of your clearance, the warnings given about the penalties for disseminating classified information whether you think it should be classified or not.
I held a Secret clearance (like all military personnel) and the penalties were spelled out pretty clearly for me as to what would happen if that information were to be leaked.
All military personnel hold secret security clearances? My navy buddy didn’t. Nor did a Marine I know on a online discussion community. In fact lots of techs working for silicon valley def dept contractors hold far lower clearances than secret level. I should know. I had a secret clearance.
“Far lower than secret”? In the world of classified information, ‘confidential’ was the only level lower when I was a classified coordinator responsible for the storage, marking, distribution, access and destruction of classified materials.
And as others have noted, your estimation of the proper classification of the material your handling is meaningless. The classifying authority is the only one who can make that determination.
As a matter of fact, I would recommend not handling classified material until you’ve had a refresher course. And reread the agreements you signed closely.
Yes, but in this case the information wasn’t classified at the time.
I also held a TS for over 10 years, if I had passed ANY classified material to anyone (journalist or not) I’d be UNDER Leavenworth. Anybody who has held one of these knows this. There are truly two levels of law. One for “them” and one or the rest of us.
“Comey redacted information he knew would be classified from one of four memos.”
This is hilarious. Rather than showing that he was careful about protecting the classified info, I would consider it proof that he knew he was mishandling it. Any juror should understand that easily, too.
Of course, I’m not a lawyer or prosecutor, or Democrat, so maybe I’m being too logical.
He’s in the clear, after all he knows no prosecutor would take on a case as bad as Hillary’s was, so his was minor in comparison and it was to bring down Trump, so he is golden… right?
OK, that was a bit too much sarcasm, even for me.
1st Trump tried to deny what was said in the meetings. He intimated that he had recordings. But the joke was on him (as it usually is). Comey had contemporaneous memos. Trump was bluffing. SAD
You want to hurt Comey? You think democrats care? The truth is in the memos. The republicans clamored to get them and then leaked them within 10 minutes! They can’t be taken back. When you wake up in the middle of the night, you know the truth, too. VERY SAD
Yes, you are a very sad and very small person. It must be hard going through life in your limited, and hate filled capacity.
Very sad.
Ad hominem. You make me weep for my country.
“You make me weep for my country.”
Russia?
The only evidence we have that those memos are in fact (a) contemporaneous and (b) accurately record what was said is Comey’s statement claiming they are. Self-serving statements are not evidence.
Does Comey’s book count as “profiting from an illegal act”?
Yes. Plus his book publisher should suffer penalties also imo.
What illegal act? The article plainly says the information (a) was not classified at the time, and (b) he redacted it out anyway. So what exactly do you claim was illegal?
I made no claim, only asked a question.
You need to chillax.
Milhouse chillax? I don’t see it. I can only imagine what he is like in real life, but my guess is that he’s just as uptight, just as preeningly sanctimonious, and just as driven to be “right” as he is here. Shudder.
He’s probably reminded the teachers that they forgot to hand out homework assignments on the Friday before Spring Break
“Have you stopped beating your wife?” is also “only a question”. But it makes the implied claim that you once did beat her. Your question, whether the book counts as profiting from an illegal act, makes the implied claim that there was an illegal act in the first place.
“…makes the implied claim that there was an illegal act in the first place.”
You’re having a problem with reading. There was quite clearly no such implication.
I can’t read the posters mind and neither can you.
So, Comey should be just fine.
Of course. And if not, he could always “pull a Comey” to defend himself: “I had no intent to do anything wrong, so no reasonable prosecutor would charge me with doing anything wrong.”
That’s why those people are called “traitors.”
RE: “Report: Comey’s Leaked Memos Included Classified Information”
As FBI director, Mr. Comey had the legal authority to determine what bureau information was classified and what wasn’t.
Well, so much for any claim that he can release such material “as a private citizen.”
Since the memos Comey leaked were of conversations with POTUS, doesn’t that mean the President is the one who has authority over their classification? I’m not a lawyer…
“… Former FBI Director Comey passed now classified information to people outside of the government …”
The word “now” is troubling … was it classified at the time he passed it?
It reminds me of a story my Dad used to tell, when back in the early 1960’s, he helped deploy the Minuteman missile wings. New in his assignment with the company and not yet possessing a security clearance, Dad developed personnel deployment plans and systems, that when completed were classified by the security monitors, whereupon he could neither read or revise what he’d developed, until his clearance came through. We used to joke about the potential for him being locked up for possessing classified information without a clearance.
Not that I think there is any comparison between my Father, an honorable man, and lyin’ Comey. Just wonder how the whole thing will be spun with the ol’ “what did you know and when did you know it” BS.
Comey may be a lot of things, but liar doesn’t appear to be one of them. He wrote the memos specifically to protect himself from being wrongly accused.
But if you think lying is an egregious offense that should disqualify someone from government service or even speaking on matters of public policy, consider whom Comey was conversing with; a man who brags about lying. Do you need the citations?
If lying is so terrible, how can you possibly support DJT?
Comey may be a lot of things, but liar doesn’t appear to be one of them.
Wasn’t much point in reading past THAT whopper.
You’re not getting it. Purely on paper, the only reason the memos would be classified at the time was because HE, DIRECTOR COMEY, classified them. If he failed to properly classify something that he really should have known would be considered classified, because, let’s say, it involved professional conversations with the President of the United States, that should be on him. And either way, a government official of his stature has no right to leak. This is doubly so when he is fired, retains information that was work product produced while a government employee, and leaks that.
Of course nothing will happen to him. The “sarcasm” someone wrote a couple of comments above? Why call it sarcasm? It’s all true.
No, it was not. That’s explicitly stated. What’s more, he correctly anticipated that this information would eventually be classified, and therefore redacted it out. So where’s the crime?
Hold the bus, stop the presses, let’s slow down.
Comey gave the memos to his “friend”, who is a law professor, and a lawyer, and later that “friend” was identified as Comey’s lawyer.
Attorney-client privilege, guys.
Absolutely no communication between Comey and his “lawyer” should be made public or discussed or used to charge Comey with a crime.
Solved that problem for ya.
Where, by the way, is “collusion” in the legal code?
the friend was a former FBI agent and had the knowledge and responsibility to recognize classified material.
have BOTH of them charged with disseminating classified material!
Since when?
Anti-trust law. Your point?
BTW I too had a ts while working for an AF contractor, and i was given extensive briefings in protecting info.
think of US Navy sailor sentenced to a year behind bars for taking photos of a nuclear submarine… despite his pleas his crime was no different to Hillary Clinton’s email server controversy
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748316/Sailor-faces-sentencing-taking-photos-nuclear-sub.html
His plea was rejected because it was plainly false.
Has Jim Hoft taken over this site now?
No.