James Clapper: DOJ Made ‘Right Decision’ Not To Prosecute Comey

Appearing Friday on CNN, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the Department of Justice made the “right decision” not to prosecute fired FBI Director James Comey for leaking personal memos containing classified information.

A partial transcript is as follows:

DON LEMON: James Comey’s not going to be prosecuted. That will disappoint [President Donald Trump]. What’s your reaction?

JAMES CLAPPER: I agree. It will disappoint him and other critics of Jim Comey. I think it was, though, the right decision for two reasons, both in the interest of fairness and, as well, more practical. I never saw the memos in question, but I’m quite sure Jim in his own took great care to ensure that there wasn’t classified information.

What I’m told is, retroactively, the FBI classified one of them as confidential, which is a pretty low bar for classification. I would be curious what their rationale was for saying one memo was classified. I think justice was served here by refusing to prosecute. I think actually [the Justice Department] would have a hard time making a case before a judge.