A new report published late Wednesday night made some incredible claims about FBI Director James Comey‘s actions this presidential election cycle. At first you might guess that someone uncovered proof Comey was intentionally in the tank for Donald Trump and purposely wanted to go after Hilary Clinton, or at least see her lose the election. If that was your first thought, you were dead wrong, at least according to a new report in Newsweek.
The magazine contends Comey actually made a play to go public with information about the suspected Russian interference on the U.S election as early as the beginning of the summer of 2016. However, the most surprising twist to come out of all this is it was allegedly the Obama administration that put the breaks on Comey’s plans, according to two anonymous sources.
According to the report, Comey went to a situation room meeting in June or July and announced that he hoped to write an op-ed, presumably in a major newspaper, detailing Russian meddling in the elections. He reportedly had no plans to mention the mostly democrat alleged Trump/Russia connections.
“He had a draft of it or an outline. He held up a piece of paper in a meeting and said, ‘I want to go forward, what do people think of this?’” a source with knowledge of the meeting told Newsweek that it included Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson and the national security adviser Susan Rice.
The idea was reportedly rejected because other national security personnel and the White House thought a multi-agency letter would be stronger in terms of messaging. Months later, in October, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence formally released a joint statement officially naming Russia as the country behind the election hacks.
Noticeably absent from that letter, however, was FBI Director James Comey.
Another source confirmed that the Obama White House killed Comey’s idea, describing it as doing their “usual thing –nothing”
“In general we have not been adding to the director’s comments regarding Russia at the March 20 hearing,” an FBI spokesman said to the news outlet when asked about Comey’s alleged planned op-ed last summer. A DOJ spokesman and an Obama spokesman also reportedly declined to comment.
[image via screengrab]
