Former FBI director James Comey had a secure room in his basement designated for sensitive work but did not utilize it when penning the memos he ultimately leaked, according to the explosive inspector’s general report released Thursday.
The damning IG reported released Thursday revealed that Comey did, in fact, violate FBI policies by leaking 2017 memos from his private conversations with President Trump. Comey had a secure Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) located in the basement of his home, which contained “Unclassified, Secret, and Top Secret/SCI enclaves, with a secure printer and a safe,” the report indicated. However, Comey did not utilize the basement when writing his memos because he considered them personal.
“This is for me,” Comey reasoned, according to the report.
According to reports, Comey hated using the secure room because it was too hot and reportedly referred to the “very, very small” area as a “sweat box.”
The New York Post reports:
The bunker came to light when the former FBI director was pressed by DOJ investigators on why he didn’t use the SCIF when writing his infamous memo about dining at the White House on Jan. 27, 2017, when Trump asked Comey for “loyalty.”
Comey said that, after reviewing Memo 2 on his personal laptop on Jan. 28, 2017, he used his personal printer to generate two paper copies (which he referred to as “two originals”), placed handwritten page numbers in the upper right-hand corner of each page, initialed the last page of each original, added a handwritten date (Jan. 28, 2017), and then deleted the electronic file from his personal laptop. Comey explained that he is “a maniac … about hacking of [his] personal devices” and that he is “obsessive” about deleting files from his personal accounts, according to the report from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
The IG report found that Comey’s general view – that the memos were personal – “was not an appropriate basis for ignoring the policies and agreements governing the use of FBI records,” the report stated.
“We conclude that Comey’s retention, handling, and dissemination of certain Memos violated Department and FBI policies, and his FBI Employment Agreement,” it added.
Nonetheless, the DOJ declined to prosecute the former FBI director.
“Upon completing its investigation, the OIG provided its factual findings to the Justice Department for a prosecutorial decision regarding Comey’s conduct, as required by the Inspector General Act,” the office stated.
“After reviewing the matter, the DOJ declined prosecution,” it concluded.
Comey bizarrely claimed vindication following the report’s release and demanded an apology from critics.
“I don’t need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a ‘sorry we lied about you’ would be nice,” he wrote on Twitter:
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