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| Former FBI Director James Comey |
The U.S. Justice Department has decided not to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey despite an internal investigation that found he improperly leaked information to the news media, the departmentโs Office of Inspector General said on Thursday.
The inspector generalโs office, which serves as the Justice Departmentโs internal watchdog, said Comey shared a handwritten memo with a friend who described it to the New York Times, in an effort by Comey to pressure the agency to launch an independent investigation into his conversations with President Donald Trump.
The memo described a private conversation in which Trump allegedly asked Comey to drop the FBIโs investigation into his then-national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Flynn has since pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russian officials.
The Justice Departmentโs report is the latest development in an ongoing fight between Comey, who authorized opening an investigation in the presidentโs 2016 election campaign and ties with Russia, and Trump, who contends that the investigation should never have begun.
That investigation, headed by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, unearthed numerous contacts between the campaign and Russian officials but concluded that there was not enough evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy.
Muellerโs final report did not reach a conclusion as to whether Trumpโs efforts to interfere with the probe amounted to criminal obstruction of justice, but it did not exonerate the president either. Attorney General William Barr concluded that he did not see enough evidence to bring obstruction charges.
Democrats in Congress are split as to whether Trump should be impeached for the actions detailed in Muellerโs report, while Republicans have largely stood by the president.
Comey decided to share the contents of his memo after Trump fired him in May 2017.
The Inspector Generalโs report said that while that memo did not contain classified material, Comey set a dangerous example when he shared sensitive information to create public pressure for official action.
โWere current or former FBI employees to follow the former Directorโs 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,โ the report said.
Comey should not have kept memos detailing his interactions with Trump after he was fired because they were official FBI documents, the report said.
Comey said on Twitter that people who have accused him of sharing classified information should apologize.
โTo all those whoโve spent two years talking about me โgoing to jailโ or being a โliar and a leakerโโask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president,โ he said.
REUTERS
