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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGOP keeps talking about Comey "leaking" classified information?
Does anyone know what he is supposed to have "leaked"?
He admits he gave his personal notes to the press but they were not classified at the time. He gave them to the proper authorities in the FBI to see if they wanted to "classify" them.
Is that what the GOP is talking about? I just saw some lady from Trump WH accuse him of leaking.
This is similar to the "leaks" they accused Hillary of doing. They were classified after the fact. At the very lowest classification, as I recall?
poboy2
(2,078 posts)Hes a leaker!
Moostache
(9,897 posts)The entire West Wing has Pee-Pee Tape Dementia!
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Seems as if they have ran the same batch through way too many times.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-watchdog-probes-comey-memos-over-classified-information-1524243505
Note: Link provided to respond to the question in the OP as to why the GOP is saying what the OP cites
Goodheart
(5,351 posts)One contained classified information but his friend never saw such information because Comey had redacted it.
The other was reclassified only after Comey gave it to his friend.
As usual, Republicans are full of shit.
riversedge
(70,413 posts)I do not subscribe to the wsj, so went looking. Anyway, seems to me that Comey protected any secret information.
https://nypost.com/2018/04/20/doj-watchdog-reviews-leaked-comey-memos-over-classified-information/
nypost.com
DOJ watchdog reviews leaked Comey memos over classified information
By Bob Fredericks
2 minutes
The Justice Departments inspector general is reviewing at least two of the memos that ex-FBI director James Comey gave to a pal to leak to the press, a new report said Friday.
One of the memos contained information that wasnt classified when Comey turned it over to a Columbia law school professor, but was later upgraded to confidential, the lowest level of classification, The Wall Street Journal reported.
In the other, Comey redacted parts that he knew were classified to protect that information before he handed the documents over to the law prof, Daniel Richman, who passed them along to The New York Times.
The memos memorialized the top G-mans conversations with President Trump, and Comey said he wrote them so hed have a contemporaneous record of the conversations in case the president denied them later...............
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)these accusatory republicans are on a desperate prowl for ways to prop up Comrade Casino*
* republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief
onecaliberal
(32,976 posts)NewsCenter28
(1,835 posts)Remember the 11 KGOP house critters wanting all those people charged. Looks like theyre going after Comey now. This ruined my day. Also I see that Trumps friend Geraldo is running around saying McCabe is headed to a minimum security prison!
MGKrebs
(8,138 posts)Raise the expectation of an unreasonable outcome, and when it doesn't happen blame it on a conspiracy of your enemies.
emulatorloo
(44,261 posts)Last edited Fri Apr 20, 2018, 08:41 PM - Edit history (3)
Also note that Mueller was appointed special prosecutor because of how Comey was fired and the statements that Trump made to Russians and Lester Holt that Comey was fired because of the Russia Investigation.
Appointment had nothing to do with these false after the fact allegations from the Liar-in-Chief and his flying monkeys that Comey leaked "classified info".
chillfactor
(7,587 posts)unblock
(52,438 posts)back in the day, the joke was to pin someone down and scribble something classified on their underwear.
classified briefs, get it?
real hassle, because that means the underwear wearer has to register his underwear as a classified document, get it stamped and labeled and put in the system appropriately, and then destroyed through the proper procedure for destruction of classified documents.
and of course can't leave the secure facility with his underwear.
anyway, comey supposedly wrote a classified version and a declassified version and leaked the declassified version; so according to him, there's no problem.
if he leaked the classified version, that technically would be a problem, even if it wasn't marked as classified. it's a problem if he knew or should have known it was classified information.
i suspect all this is (desperate) wishful thinking on donnie's part.
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)For memoirs and such don't the diaries and memos go through a vetting process. This is a process that Petraeus bypassed.
The WSJ is claiming at least one of the documents Comey released to a friend had classified information in it.
unblock
(52,438 posts)yeah, putin called donnie to congratulate him, they'll say that's classified information.
whatever.
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)with very sensitive designations to get Petraeus' a slap on the wrist. Someone should inventory it sometime. I wish someone would go back to the Bush II administration and hunt through all the classified information that ended up on private emails. That was an avenue that Clinton should have pursued.
NewsCenter28
(1,835 posts)My fear is that if Comey released classified information, unknowingly or not, as you said, that led to Rosenstein appointing SC Mueller, would that give Trump just cause to fire Mueller? Even as someone who cried into his moms arms the day after Hillary lost, even I gotta think that if Comey released classified info that lead to Rosenstein appointing Mueller, that the well is poisoned and Mueller has to go. Am I just being paranoid here? Would Mueller still be legit even if his investigation was prompted by Comey leaking classified data?
Maybe Comey was so mad about being fired, he had a lapse in judgment? I hope not because this may blow up the obstruction of justice case and Mueller too if true? Please tell me Im wrong!
unblock
(52,438 posts)the legitimacy of mueller's appointment isn't affected by public knowledge or politics. it's perfectly legitimate to have a special counsel appointed on the basis of classified information, even if it's leaked.
an anonymous tip might not be admissible in court, might not even be enough to get a search warrant, but it's certainly reasonable to launch an investigation and to try to build a case on the basis of that information. this is somewhat similar.
to clarify a technical point, it's a different problem if comey didn't know and couldn't be expected to know it was classified information, as opposed to if he knew or should have known. but that doesn't much matter in this case because comey clearly knew he had some classified information. that said, if he properly gave only the declassified version out, then again there's no problem.
i really think donnie's grasping at straws again.
tableturner
(1,685 posts)Where do you get that from? There were several factors that caused it, with Trump's words and actions leading the list. Nobody can reasonably claim that the notes were one of the main reasons for the naming of the Special Counsel.
Like their other fiascos, this one will fail.
Arkansas Granny
(31,538 posts)rock
(13,218 posts)Are first and foremost vague, general, nonspecific. E.g. "Hillary is crooked". They just are not into details!
procon
(15,805 posts)James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media, he wrote in a July 10 tweet. That is so illegal! But as we noted at the time there was no evidence that the memo Comey shared was one of those that was classified. (Trumps tweet was based on a Fox News report that was later corrected.)
We now know with certainty that Trump was wrong.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/news/politics/wp/2018/04/20/the-comey-memos-bolster-his-claim-that-he-didnt-leak-classified-information/?nid=menu_nav_accessibilityforscreenreader&outputType=accessibility&utm_term=.28293588ef6e
Much more detailed info at the link above.
world wide wally
(21,758 posts)leftyladyfrommo
(18,874 posts)before it was published so that isn't it.
emulatorloo
(44,261 posts)The notion that they were classified comes from misleading/sloppy/incorrect reporting by Fox (big surprise)
Article is short
Getting link
Why Were Republicans so Desperate to Release the Embarrassing Comey Memos? Heres One Explanation.
By JEREMY STAHL
APRIL 20, 201812:48 AM
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/why-were-republicans-so-desperate-to-release-the-embarrassing-comey-memos-heres-one-explanation.html
<snip>
What was the basis for saying Comey had leaked four memossome of them classified in a way that would make such leaks illegalto Richman? The criminal referral cited a letter from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley that was released in January.
According to press reports, Professor Daniel Richman of Columbia Law School stated that Mr. Comey provided him four of the seven memoranda and encouraged him to detail [Comeys] memos to the press. If its true that Professor Richman had four of the seven memos, then in light of the fact that four of the seven memos the Committee reviewed are classified, it would appear that at least one memo the former FBI director gave Professor Richman contained classified information. Professor Richman later read a portion of one of the memos to a New York Times reporter.
Where did Grassley get the notion that Richman said Comey gave him four memos, indicating at least one was classified? Grassleys letter cited a July 10 Fox News report titled Comey Memos Reportedly Had Classified Info; Trump Says That Is so illegal. In it, Richman is quoted as saying this:
No memos were given to the press, and no memos were classified at the time I received them, Richman told Fox News, explaining that the substance of one memo was given to the press but not the physical document.
That was not classified at the time, and remains unclassified, he said.
Richman told Fox News he received four memos from Comey, all of which were not marked.
Notice how Richman explicitly said none of the memos he received were classified and that they remained unclassified? And notice how that portion was in quotes. Now, notice how the part about Richman receiving four memos was not in quotes, but rather Fox News description of what it says the organization was told?
Now: In the documents released on Thursday, there were two memos with the header UNCLASSIFIED // FOUOU on them, both of which overlap with what had been reported in the New York Times and in Comeys testimony. The number of pages in those two unclassified documents: four. (There was also a third single-page, one-paragraph document that was also marked unclassified, a March 1, 2017, email.)
This all ultimately seems to explain why House Republicans were so eager to get these memos into the public. It seems as though they thought the memos would prove Comey had illegally leaked classified information and lied about it. It seems as though they were basing this entirely on a bit of contradictoryand likely inaccurateFox News reporting. And it seems that this contradictory, likely inaccurate reporting was done by Fox News to help validate this Donald Trump tweet, which was sent two days after Comeys Senate testimony:
Snip
Finally, it seems that the memos released prove the exact opposite: The apparently leaked documents were never and still arent classified.
Much much more at link
kentuck
(111,110 posts)FOX's sloppiness and misstatements should be widely reported.
stillcool
(32,626 posts)Fox news doing what Fox news does best...with the help of some friends.
elleng
(131,292 posts)malaise
(269,254 posts)Fugg 'em!