“My judgment was I needed to get that out into the public square.”
President Trump’s personal attorney plans to file a complaint against fired FBI Director James B. Comey with the Justice Department over his leaking of memos on his conversations with the president, a source close to the president’s legal team said Friday.
According to various reports, a complaint will be filed early next week with the Justice Department’s Inspector General regarding the leak, and there will also be a “submission” to the Senate Judiciary Committee about Mr. Comey’s testimony before both Senate Judiciary and Senate Intelligence committees.
During testimony at the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing Thursday, Comey said he shared the contents of a memo that he had previously written about a meeting he had with Trump. That decision, Comey said, came three days after Trump posted a tweet that read “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
Comey said the tweet prompted his decision to tell his friend who was later confirmed by ABC News to be Columbia Law School professor Dan Richman about the memo in question. “I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night, because it didn’t dawn on me originally, there might be corroboration, a tape,” Comey said.
“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. I didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel,” Comey said.
Mr. Comey testified on May 3 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a week before he was fired, in which Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-IA) asked if the FBI Director was ever the source of anonymous news articles.
GRASSLEY: “And thank you for your opening statement. I’m going to start out probably with a couple of subjects you wish I didn’t bring up, and then a third one that I think everybody needs to hear your opinion on a policy issue. It is frustrating when the FBI refuses to answer this committee’s questions, but leaks relevant information to the media. In other words, they don’t talk to us, but somebody talks to the media. Director Comey, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?”
COMEY: “Never.”
GRASSLEY: “Question two, relatively related, have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?”
COMEY: “No.”
GRASSLEY: “Has any classified information relating to President Trump or his association — associates been declassified and shared with the media?”
COMEY: “Not to my knowledge.”
In his testimony Thursday, Former Director Comey contradicted his previous testimony and admitted to being the source of the leaked memos to the press.
18 U.S. Code § 1621 – Perjury generally
Whoever—
- having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to be administered, that he will testify, declare, depose, or certify truly, or that any written testimony, declaration, deposition, or certificate by him subscribed, is true, willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true; or
- in any declaration, certificate, verification, or statement under penalty of perjury as permitted under section 1746 of title 28, United States Code, willfully subscribes as true any material matter which he does not believe to be true; is guilty of perjury and shall, except as otherwise expressly provided by law, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. This section is applicable whether the statement or subscription is made within or without the United States.
Mr. Comey has put himself in a very tight spot. Blatant and verified falsification of testimony destroys credibility, and taints everything the witness says.
