President Trump tweeted Thursday after the release of a Justice Department inspector general report that found that former Federal Bureau of Investigations Director James Comey had violated FBI rules by leaking memos with classified information to the media.
“Perhaps never in the history of our Country has someone been more thoroughly disgraced and excoriated than James Comey in the just released Inspector General’s Report. He should be ashamed of himself!” he tweeted:
The White House also put out a statement calling Comey a “liar and leaker.”
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said:
James Comey is a proven liar and leaker. The Inspector General’s report shows Comey violated the most basic obligations of confidentiality that he owed to the United States Government and to the American people, ‘in order to achieve a personally desired outcome.’
Because Comey shamefully leaked information to the press—in blatant violation of FBI policies—the Nation was forced to endure the baseless politically motivated, two-year witch hunt. Comey disgraced himself and his office to further a personal political agenda, and this report further confirms that fact.
DOJ IG Michael Horowitz on Thursday released his report on whether Comey violated any DOJ regulations while serving as FBI director.
Comey infamously created memos of his conversations with President Trump, kept copies at his home and at the FBI, and gave them to friends who leaked them to the media after Trump fired him. Those memos led to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel.
Horowitz’s report said Comey broke FBI policy by leaking several memos containing classified information.
“We conclude that Comey’s retention, handling, and dissemination of certain Memos violated Department and FBI policies, and his FBI Employment Agreement,” the report said.
The watchdog office said Comey broke FBI rules by giving a memo containing unclassified information to his friend Daniel Richman with instructions to share the contents with a reporter.
The office also said Comey failed to notify the FBI after he was fired that he had retained some of the memos in a safe at home. Comey wrote a series of memos about conversations with President Trump he said unnerved him. Comey has stated he wanted to make a record of the interactions because he was concerned President Trump might later lie about them.
Attorney General William Barr will not prosecute the fired FBI director over his wrongdoings.
Comey claimed vindication in a pair of tweets following the report’s release, saying it “would be nice” for those who “defamed” him to apologize, privately.
“DOJ IG “found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media.” 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,” the ousted FBI chief wrote.
“And to all those who’ve spent two years talking about me “going to jail” or being a “liar and a leaker”—ask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president,” he added.
Breitbart News’s Joshua Caplan contributed to this report.