Trump to file complaint against Comey for memo leak
President’s personal attorney said set to submit documents to Justice Department, Senate Judiciary Committee, day after scathing testimony by ex-FBi director
US President Donald Trump is set to file a complaint with the Justice Department and the Senate Judiciary Committee against former FBI director James Comey, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday
The complaint will focus on testimony Comey gave on Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee in which he said that he gave an unclassified memo detailing a conversation between himself and the president to a friend to give to the media, CNN reported Friday.
The friend was later identified as Comey confidant and Columbia law professor Daniel Richman.
Trump’s lawyer Marc Kasowitz was set to issue the complaint but it was unclear when. The Justice Department has limited jurisdiction over former employees.
Trump took to Twitter on Friday to slam Comey as a “leaker,” but ignored the scathing testimony by the former FBI director, who was fired in early May, that Trump had tried to derail a probe into his onetime national security advisor — at best, a political miscalculation by a tradition-shredding president, and at worst, a criminal obstruction of justice.
Pundits and legal experts were divided on whether Trump’s actions rose to the level of obstruction of justice, a potentially impeachable offense, while Comey said that decision was now in the hands of the special prosecutor, former FBI chief Robert Mueller.
During almost three hours of frank statements on Thursday, Comey described himself as “stunned” by Trump’s “very disturbing” and “very concerning” behavior in several meetings.
Detailing one-on-one talks with a sitting president — which under normal circumstances are private — Comey said he took painstaking notes for fear Trump might “lie” about the unusual encounters.
Painting a devastating picture of an untrustworthy president, Comey admitted he asked a friend to leak those notes to a reporter, betting — correctly — that the details would prompt the appointment of a special prosecutor.
“My judgment was I needed to get that out into the public square. So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter,”
The president tweeted Friday: “Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication…and WOW, Comey is a leaker!”
Trump is set to speak later Friday.
The Trump White House has been dogged for months with accusations that the president’s campaign team colluded with Moscow to tilt the 2016 election in his favor.
The Times of Israel Community.