Comey Violated FBI Protocols in Handling Memos

Attorney general says Comey did not provide Justice Department with 'facts of any kind' on alleged improper communications

Former FBI Director James Comey testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, 2017. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Former FBI Director James Comey has become a center of attention for the memos he made of private conversations he had with President Donald Trump. In handling those memos, Comey chose not to follow FBI protocol, which has damaged their value as evidence while perhaps reducing any penalty for disclosing them.

Comey’s failure to follow protocol became a topic of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s testimony before the Senate intelligence committee on June 13, regarding Comey’s account of a meeting between him and Trump on Feb. 14. At that meeting, Comey claims Trump expressed his hope that former national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn could be “let go.” Flynn is currently under investigation by the FBI.

Both the president and his lawyer have strongly denied that Trump asked in any form for Comey to let Flynn go.

Comey, in his June 8 testimony before the Senate intelligence committee, alleged he had informed Sessions of Trump’s request at a meeting the day after he met with Trump.

In response to questioning from Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Sessions said Comey did not inform him at that meeting of any inappropriate requests made by the president.

He mentioned no facts of any kind. He did not mention to me that he had been asked to do something he thought was improper.

— Attorny General Jeff Sessions