The Justice Department will not prosecute former FBI Director James Comey for leaking classified memos after President Donald Trump fired him. Reports say the Justice Department has declined to prosecute Comey because it is unclear whether he intended to violate laws regarding the handling of classified information.
The memos detailed Comey's private conversations with President Trump about the FBI's probes into Russian interference during the election and the president's campaign. Comey wrote that Trump asked him to shut down the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn and asked him to take a loyalty oath.
After the president fired Comey, Comey leaked the memos to Daniel Richman, an attorney and a professor at Columbia University Law School. Richman then gave them to a reporter from the New York Times.
Comey admitted to leaking the memos to his friend, and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz referred Comey for potential prosecution after conducting an internal review. Some of the memos were classified as "confidential," but they were only given that classification after Comey had leaked them to Richman.
Prosecutors decided against pursuing charges against Comey because they did not believe they had enough evidence of Comey's intent to violate the law and felt that prosecuting him would look "vindictive."
"Everyone at the DOJ involved in the decision said it wasn't a close call," one official told Fox News. "They all thought this could not be prosecuted."
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