by Thomas Lifson
"This revelation raises the possibility that Comey broke his own agency’s rules and ignored the same security protocol that he publicly criticized Hillary Clinton for in the waning days of the 2016 presidential election".
If an anonymously-sourced story published in The Hill is correct, James Comey could find himself with a big problem on his hands. John Solomon reports:
More than half of the memos former FBI chief James Comey wrote as personal recollections of his conversations with President Trump about the Russia investigation have been determined to contain classified information, according to interviews with officials familiar with the documents.This is the point at which the jokes about “intent” begin. And it is also where Comey’s legal exposure begins. Comey is a smart lawyer, and no doubt has an argument on the classified information mishandling, just as Hillary did. And that is a problem of optics as well as of law. Comey also has his sworn testimony on June 8, 2017 to deal with on the matter of government property:
This revelation raises the possibility that Comey broke his own agency’s rules and ignored the same security protocol that he publicly criticized Hillary Clinton for in the waning days of the 2016 presidential election. (snip)
[T]he revelation that four of the seven memos included some sort of classified information opens a new door of inquiry into whether classified information was mishandled, improperly stored or improperly shared.
Ironically, that was the same issue the FBI investigated in 2015-16 under Comey about Clinton’s private email server, where as secretary of State she and top aides moved classified information through insecure channels.
“So you didn’t consider your memo or your sense of that conversation to be a government document?,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) asked Comey on June 8. “You considered it to be, somehow, your own personal document that you could share to the media as you wanted through a friend?”If he used classified information in the documents, he clearly appropriated governemnt property:
“Correct,” Comey answered. “I understood this to be my recollection recorded of my conversation with the president. As a private citizen, I thought it important to get it out.”
FBI policy forbids any agent from releasing classified information or any information from ongoing investigations or sensitive operations without prior written permission, and mandates that all records created during official duties are considered to be government property.Comey, the expert manipulator and game-player, has new peril on his hands. He maybe a wild card for Loretta Lynch and those who pulled her strings on the Hillary email investigation. He knows the drill when it comes to offering deals to the accused in hopes of getting them to testify against their superiors in a criminal enterprise.
“Unauthorized disclosure, misuse, or negligent handling of information contained in the files, electronic or paper, of the FBI or which I may acquire as an employee of the FBI could impair national security, place human life in jeopardy, result in the denial of due process, prevent the FBI from effectively discharging its responsibilities, or violate federal law,” states the agreement all FBI agents sign.
It adds that “all information acquired by me in connection with my official duties with the FBI and all official material to which I have access remain the property of the United States of America” and that an agent “will not reveal, by any means, any information or material from or related to FBI files or any other information acquired by virtue of my official employment to any unauthorized recipient without prior official written authorization by the FBI.”
Thomas Lifson
Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/07/report_half_of_comeys_private_memos_on_trump_conversations_contained_classified_info.html
Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment