The Justice Department’s chief watchdog is preparing a damning report on James Comey’s conduct in his final days as FBI director that likely will conclude he leaked classified information and showed a lack of candor after his own agency began looking into his feud with President Trump over the Russia probe.
Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz’s team referred Comey for possible prosecution under the classified information protection laws, but Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors working for Attorney General William Barr reportedly have decided to decline prosecution — a decision that’s likely to upset Comey’s conservative critics.
Prosecutors found the IG’s findings compelling but decided not to bring charges because they did not believe they had enough evidence of Comey’s intent to violate the law, according to multiple sources.
The concerns stem from the fact that one memo that Comey leaked to a friend specifically to be published by the media — as he admitted in congressional testimony — contained information classified at the lowest level of “confidential,” and that classification was made by the FBI after Comey had transmitted the information, the sources said.
Although a technical violation, DOJ did not want to “make its first case against the Russia investigators with such thin margins and look petty and vindictive,” a source told me, explaining the DOJ’s rationale.
But Comey and others inside the FBI and the DOJ during his tenure still face legal jeopardy in ongoing probes by the IG and Barr-appointed special prosecutor John Durham. Those investigations are focused on the origins of the Russia investigation that included a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant targeting the Trump campaign at the end of the 2016 election, the source said.
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See Also:
(1) Judicial Watch: New Docs Show FBI Agents Went To Comey’s Home to Retrieve Memos
(2) Hillary Wasn’t the Only One: FBI Seized Unsecured Classified Memos From Comey’s Home
(3) FBI evidence log says Comey lost track of Trump memos
(4) FBI agents went to Comey’s house, retrieved secret memo written after his termination
(5) Comey’s inside man at White House emerges as DOJ inspector general finalizes FISA abuse report
Time Running Short For Comey? I’ll believe that only when I see it actually happen. Until then I remain deeply skeptical. The Deep State is far from vanquished. Look no further than the ‘invisible man’ FBI Director Christopher Wray. Trump’s personal pick. The FBI continues after nearly 3 years to stonewall all attempts to expose its corruption until literally forced, dragged kicking and screaming by judge’s threats to comply with legal Judicial Watch FOIA requests ‘or else’. Hellova a way to run an supposed law enforcement agency I’d say. As for AG (and self admitted BFF of Robert Mueller) Barr, ‘my’ jury is still out. I’d feel more confident if there had even been ONE raid of any deep state operative (and they are plentiful) for the specific purpose of seizing evidence before it can be destroyed. The years roll by, more and more time provided for the destruction of evidence. More and more time for the clock to run out on statute of limitations. For the Deep State, this is the pure definition of success…
Notably, though, even if Trump had authority or reason to prosecute Clinton, he would likely still have trouble doing so due to legal limitations. As The Hill reported, the statute of limitations for the majority of federal felonies is five years — and Clinton left her role as Secretary of State in 2013.