We are fortunate
the Obama Administration,
especially Mr. Comey,
who strongly favored
Hillary Clinton,
was so incompetent
that they unintentionally
hurt Clinton's campaign,
and helped Trump
win the election.
But the many policies
and laws broken,
should not be ignored,
simply because the
Obama "deep state"
did not succeed.
This is a summary of
Department of Justice
Inspector General
Michael E. Horowitz's
report examining
one small aspect
of former FBI Director
James B. Comey's
law breaking.
James Comey and Andrew
McCabe, spurred on by
John Brennan and James
Clapper, led an unjustified
investigation of candidate,
and later President,
Donald Trump.
That FBI investigation
lasted at least nine months,
and found no evidence
of any collusion with
Russians, by any Americans.
While that
"counter-intelligence"
investigation was finding
absolutely nothing to smear
Trump with, James Comey
came up with a plan to get
the public to demand
a special counsel
at least by Democrats,
to continue investigating.
That special counsel,
Robert Mueller, who
was Comey's friend,
had an all-Democrat team
investigating only
Republicans, for 22 months,
and found no evidence
of collusion, as documented
in 'The Mueller Report'.
Comey wrote memos summarizing
seven one-on-one interactions
with President-elect and President
Donald J. Trump, between
January 6 and April 11, 2017.
Comey’s congressional testimony
said that after his removal as
FBI Director on May 9, 2017,
he had authorized a friend
to provide the contents
of one memo to a reporter
for The New York Times.
That memo claimed that Trump
wanted Comey to 'go easy' on
General Flynn.
I don't believe Trump ever
said that, and no one will ever
know the truth, but we know
Flynn did NOT get off easy
like Hillary Clinton did
-- he was attacked
by the FBI for not
remembering details
of phone conversations
the FBI already had
transcripts of.
There was no underlying
crime committed by Flynn.
The two FBI agents
who interviewed Flynn,
said at the time that they
did not believe Flynn was
deliberately lying.
"The OIG determined that Comey,
OIG = Office of Inspector General
while FBI Director, kept copies
of four of the seven memos
in a personal safe at his home
and, after his removal
as FBI Director,
violated FBI policies and his
FBI Employment Agreement
by failing to notify the FBI
that he had retained them,
or to seek authorization
to retain them."
"Comey likewise violated
applicable policies and his
FBI Employment Agreement
by providing copies, following
his removal as FBI Director,
of the four memos he had kept
in his home to his three
private attorneys without
FBI authorization."
"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".
Below is most of page 60
of the full OIG report
" ... the civil liberties of every individual who may fall within the scope of the FBI's investigative authorities depend on the FBI's ability to protect sensitive information from unauthorized disclosure.
As Comey himself explained in his March 20, 2017 testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, he was unable to provide details about the nature or scope of the FBI’s ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election because the FBI is very careful in how we handle information about our cases and about the people we are investigating....
Our ability to share details with the Congress and the American people is limited when those investigations are still open, which I hope makes sense.
We need to protect people’s privacy....
We just cannot do our work well or fairly if we start talking about it while we’re doing it.
However, after his removal as FBI Director two months later, Comey provided a copy of Memo 4, which Comey had kept without authorization, to Richman with instructions to share the contents with a reporter for The New York Times.
Memo 4 included information that was related to both the FBI's ongoing investigation of Flynn and, by Comey’s own account, information that he believed and alleged constituted evidence of an attempt to obstruct the ongoing Flynn investigation; later that same day, The New York Times published an article about Memo 4 entitled, “Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation.”
The responsibility to protect sensitive law enforcement information falls in large part to the employees of the FBI who have access to it through their daily duties.
On occasion, some of these employees may disagree with decisions by prosecutors, judges, or higher ranking FBI and Department officials about the actions to take or not take in criminal and counterintelligence matters.
They may even, in some situations, distrust the legitimacy of those supervisory, prosecutorial, or judicial decisions.
But even when these employees believe that their most strongly-held personal convictions might be served by an unauthorized disclosure, the FBI depends on them not to disclose sensitive information.
Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility.
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.
Comey said he was compelled to take these actions “if I love this country...and I love the Department of Justice, and I love the FBI.”
However, were current or former FBI employees to follow the former Director's example and disclose sensitive information in service of their own strongly held personal convictions, the FBI would be unable to dispatch its law enforcement
duties properly, as Comey himself noted in his March 20, 2017 congressional testimony.
Comey expressed a similar concern to President Trump, according to Memo 4, in discussing leaks of FBI information, telling Trump that the FBI's ability to conduct its work is compromised “if people run around telling the press what we do.”
This is no doubt part of the reason why Comey’s closest advisors used the words “surprised,” “stunned,” “shocked,” and “disappointment” to describe their reactions to learning what Comey had done.
We have previously faulted Comey for acting unilaterally and inconsistent with Department policy.
Comey’s unauthorized disclosure of sensitive law enforcement information about the Flynn investigation merits similar criticism.
In a country built on the rule of law, it is of utmost importance that all FBI employees adhere to Department and FBI policies, particularly when confronted by what appear to be extraordinary circumstances or compelling personal convictions.
Comey had several other lawful options available to him to advocate for the appointment of a Special Counsel, which he told us was his goal in making the disclosure.
What was not permitted was the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive investigative information, obtained during the course of FBI employment, in order to achieve a personally desired outcome.
The OIG has provided this report to the FBI and to the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility for action they deem appropriate."
