President Donald Trump responded on Thursday to the Inspector General’s report alleging that former FBI director James Comey violated FBI policy in handling memos about his conversations with the president.
Of the seven memos Comey wrote, four contained information classified as “Secret” or “Confidential.” Comey gave one of the memos to his friend, Daniel Richman, with instructions to leak one to The New York Times. (RELATED: DOJ Watchdog Says James Comey Violated FBI Policy)
Comey “failed to live up to this responsibility” as the former FBI director, the IG’s office found, “by not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment.”
The president responded to the news on Twitter, writing, “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!” Trump added.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2019
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham released her own statement about Comey’s alleged violation of FBI policy.
“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.”
Comey insisted on Twitter that none of the information he leaked was classified and demanded an apology from the president and his supporters for labeling him a “liar and a leaker.”
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.
— James Comey (@Comey) August 29, 2019
The IG report painted a different picture, stating that Comey’s actions “set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees—and the many thousands more former FBI employees—who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information.”