Rep. Trey Gowdy pressed the FBI Director James Comey — during his Monday hearing before the House Intelligence Committee — on how media outlets, such as the New York Times, have encountered classified information relating to the intelligence community’s investigation into the 2016 election.
The South Carolina Republican read a number of headlines, openly referring to leaks of classified information, before posing to Comey he “thought it was against the law to disseminate classified information information. Is it?”
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“Oh, yes, sure,” Comey answered. “It’s a serious crime.”
“I’m not going to comment on those particular articles because I don’t want to in any circumstance compound a criminal act by confirming that it was classified information.”
“In general, yes, it’s a serious crime,” he reiterated. “It should be for the reasons you said.”