Comey's memo leak violated FBI policy: US watchdog
August 29, 2019
Former FBI Director James Comey has justified the leak, saying it was the only way to trigger a special investigation. In the memo, Comey said Trump asked him to pledge loyalty and stop investigating a senior official.
The department's Office of Inspector General said Comey handed over a memo about his interactions with US President Donald Trump to a friend and personal lawyer with the intention that parts of it would be shared with a specific reporter at The New York Times.
"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 property," said the Inspector General's report.
Trump fired Comey in May 2017 in support of recommendations offered by senior officials. However, the president later linked Comey's dismissal to a federal probe into collusion between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign.
From endorsing enhanced interrogation to investigating Russia's alleged election-tampering, the ex-FBI director has contributed to the divisive political landscape in the US. DW examines the man behind the headlines.
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A divisive figure
The seventh in a lineage of FBI directors with law degrees, James Comey has shaped politics in the US as the head of the law enforcement agency. But who is the man behind the headlines? From prosecuting an American celebrity to refusing to sanction the NSA's mass surveillance program, DW explores the contentious life of James Comey.
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Taking down a celebrity
Serving as Manhattan's chief federal prosecutor, Comey rose to notoriety in 2002, when he led the prosecution of US celebrity Martha Stewart for securities fraud and obstruction of justice. Stewart, widely known in the US for her cooking and lifestyle shows, served a 5-month jail sentence following the highly-publicized case.
Image: picture-alliance/epa/J. Lane
Enhanced interrogation
In late 2003, Comey was confirmed as the US deputy attorney general, making him the second-highest-ranking official in the Justice Department. Serving under former President George W. Bush, Comey endorsed a memorandum approving the use of 13 enhanced interrogation techniques during the War on Terror, including waterboarding. He later said he lobbied to have the policy toned down.
Image: Getty Images/J. Moore
Mass surveillance
Comey has warned of the consequences of domestic mass surveillance, saying in March: "There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America." While serving as acting attorney general during the hospitalization of John Ashcroft in 2004, he refused to endorse the legality of the NSA's domestic surveillance program, even when pressured by the Bush administration.
Image: picture alliance/zb/A. Engelhardt
Obama's choice
In 2013, then-President Barack Obama nominated Comey to serve as the seventh director of the FBI. He received the nomination despite being a registered member of the Republican party. Later that year, he received congressional approval to takeover the office. In his installation speech, he said the bureau's work is founded on integrity. "Without integrity, all is lost," he said.
Image: Reuters
More Holocaust education
In 2015, Comey penned an op-ed on why he required new FBI special agents and intelligence analysts to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington. He said the reason was to have them understand the consequences of abusing power and to be confronted by the atrocities humans are capable of. "I believe that the Holocaust is the most significant event in human history," he said.
In July 2016, Comey announced that the FBI had found no evidence of criminal intention in Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as state secretary. But days before the presidential election, he issued a letter to lawmakers informing them of new emails deemed "pertinent to the investigation." He later said no evidence was uncovered. Clinton has since blamed Comey for losing the election.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/M. Altaffer
'You're fired'
On May 9, Trump sent Comey an unusual letter firing the FBI director, cutting short his 10-year mandate to lead the bureau. Given the ongoing FBI-led investigation into election-meddling by Russia, critics have warned that the move may amount to obstruction of justice for undermining the probe. Trump later appeared to threaten Comey over the existence of "tapes" of their conversations.
Image: Getty Images/A. Harrer
Trump-Russia nexus
Comey reportedly kept memos of interactions between him and President Donald Trump, which appear to implicate the head of state in attempts to obstruct a federal probe into Russia's alleged involvement in influencing the 2016 election. The day after US media reported on the existence of the memos, the Justice Department named a special counsel to lead the probe amid fears of White House influence.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/A. Shcherbak
Damning testimony?
In June 2017, shortly after being fired, Comey testified in Congress that he believed Trump fired him over the Russia probe. "I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change, the way the Russia investigation was being conducted," he told lawmakers. He has since released a book, in which he described Trump as a "mafia boss" who is "untethered to the truth."
Image: Reuters/K. Lamarque
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From memos to Russia probe
The memo leaked by Comey dealt with Trump's former National Security Adviser and disgraced military general, Michael Flynn. In the memo, Comey wrote that Trump had asked him to pledge loyalty and drop a federal probe into Flynn.
Comey justified his handling of the memo, saying he had shared it with a reporter in the hopes that knowledge of its existence would trigger an independent probe into Russian collusion and potential obstruction of justice.