The conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday, in an attempt to find out more information about former FBI Director James Comey’s sudden departure. Specifically, the group is seeking all non-disclosure agreements regarding the handling and storage of classified information that were signed by Comey. They filed the lawsuit in federal court in D.C. after the DOJ failed to respond to a FOIA request.
“How is it the FBI allowed Mr. Comey to walk out the door with sensitive documents about President Trump?” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton asked in a tweet. “It is remarkable that we have to sue the FBI in federal court to get these answers about this scandal.”
When Comey was fired by President Trump, he apparently took with him notes regarding his conversations with the president. He passed those notes to his friend at Columbia Law school, who then passed the information to a reporter. The contents described a conversation he had with the president in which Trump allegedly urged him to shutdown the FBI investigation of then-Trump advisor Michael Flynn. The revelations resulted in a special counsel being appointed. However, Comey stated in his testimony to Congress that the information that he took with him was not classified.
WARNER [Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia)]: And I — I found it very interesting that, in the memo that you wrote after this February 14th pull-aside, you made clear that you wrote that memo in a way that was unclassified.
If you affirmatively made the decision to write a memo that was unclassified, was that because you felt, at some point, the facts of that meeting would have to come clean and come clear and actually be able to be cleared in a way that could be shared with the American people?
COMEY: Well, I remember thinking, this is a very disturbing development, really important to our work. I need to document it and preserve it in a way — and — and this committee gets this, but sometimes when things are classified, it tangles them up. It’s hard…
WARNER: Amen.
Trump fired back in a series of tweets accusing Comey of illegally leaking classified information.
James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media. That is so illegal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2017
This is one of several lawsuits that Judicial Watch has filed in recent months seeking information about Comey including notes he wrote about his conversations with Trump as well as records about his FBI-issued laptop computer. We reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment, and will update this article when we get a reply.
[Screengrab via PBS]
Follow Law&Crime:
