Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz recently referred former former FBI Director James Comey for potential prosecution as part of an internal review.
Michael Horowitz’s report claimed that James Comey both lied to President Donald Trump and spied on him.
But despite the referral, the DOJ announced on Thursday that the department will not prosecute James Comey for those leaked memos.
Fox News reported that the Justice Department has decided against prosecuting former FBI Director Comey for leaking classified information following a referral from the department’s inspector general, a source familiar with the deliberations told the network.
“Everyone at the DOJ involved in the decision said it wasn’t a close call,” the official said. “They all thought this could not be prosecuted.”
James Comey penned memos memorializing his interactions with President Donald Trump in the days leading up to his firing. He then passed those documents to a friend, who gave them to The New York Times. The former FBI Director admitted to that arrangement during congressional testimony.
During his 2017 testimony, Comey said that he deliberately leaked a memo from a key meeting with President Trump to a friend after he was fired in order to prompt the appointment of a special counsel.
“I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter—I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel,” Comey testified.
“I was worried that the media was camping at the end of my driveway, my wife and I were going away,” Comey said. “I was worried it would be like feeding seagulls at the beach if it was I who gave it to the media, so I asked my friend to.”
The New York Times published the report with James Comey’s memos on May 16, 2017, revealing the contents of the memo which said that President Trump asked him to shut down the federal investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn in an Oval Office meeting.