The Department of Justice has decided not to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey after an internal investigation determined that he improperly leaked memos detailing his interactions with Donald Trump, the department’s Office of Inspector General said on Thursday.
As you may recall, Comey was fired after allegedly being pressured to drop an investigation into Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Reports say that Comey allegedly penned memos memorializing his interactions with President Trump in the days leading up to his firing. He then allegedly asked his friend Daniel Richman, a Columbia University Law professor, to share the contents of that memo with The New York Times, which published an article entitled, “Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation.”
The inspector general’s office believes Comey shared information in order to pressure the Justice Department to launch an independent investigation into his conversations with President Trump.
According to Fox News, the key factors leading to the DOJ declining to prosecute was reportedly due to the fact that the two memos were labeled “confidential” after he set in motion the chain of events that led to them ending up with the press.
“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,” Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote in his report. The report adds, ”Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility.”
