The Justice Department has decided against prosecuting former FBI Director James Comey for leaking classified information following a referral from the department’s inspector general, sources familiar with the deliberations told Fox News.
“Everyone at the DOJ involved in the decision said it wasn’t a close call,” one official said. “They all thought this could not be prosecuted.”
Comey penned memos memorializing his interactions with President Trump in the days leading up to his firing. He then passed those documents to a friend, Columbia University Law Professor Daniel Richman, who gave them to The New York Times. Comey admitted to that arrangement during congressional testimony.
After the fact, the FBI classified two of those memos as “confidential.”
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz had referred Comey for potential prosecution as part of an internal review.
But one of the key factors leading to the DOJ declining to prosecute apparently was the fact that the two memos were labeled “confidential” after he set in motion the chain of events that led to them ending up with the press.
Richman, now serving as an attorney to Comey, told Fox News he had “no comment” on the prosecutorial decision on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Fox News has learned that the release of Horowitz’s report is “imminent,” according to another source familiar with the investigation.
