Former FBI Director James Comey sits in a firestorm of his own making. By his own admission, he created and then leaked memos to ensure that a special counsel would be appointed to investigate President Trump. It looks as if Comey broke government rules and laws as part of his machinations. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is unlikely to investigate his friend Comey, so it is up to Judicial Watch to do the work of the Justice Department, FBI, Congress, and the media.
For that reason, we have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice for all non-disclosure agreements pertaining to the handling, storage, protection, dissemination, and/or return of classified information that were signed by or on behalf of former FBI Director James Comey (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-01624)).
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Justice Department failed to respond to our June 13, 2017, FOIA request seeking “any and all non-disclosure agreements pertaining in full or in part to the handling, storage, protection, dissemination, and/or return of classified and/or sensitive information that were signed by or on behalf of former FBI Director James Comey.” Such records would include:
- All SF-312 (Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement) forms
- All FD-857 (Sensitive Information Nondisclosure Agreement) forms
- All FD-597 (Receipt for Property Received/Returned/Released or Seized) forms
- All FD-291 (FBI Employment Agreement) forms
- All Case Briefing Acknowledgement forms
In June, Judicial Watch sent the FBI a warning letter concerning the FBI’s legal responsibility under the Federal Records Act (FRA) to recover records, including memos Comey subsequently leaked to the media and were unlawfully removed from the bureau by Comey. Judicial Watch later filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Justice for information about Comey’s memorandum written after his meeting with President Trump regarding potential interference by the Russians in the 2016 presidential election (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-01189)).
In July, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Justice for the metadata for the memoranda written by Comey memorializing his conversations with President Donald Trump as well as records about Comey’s FBI-issued laptop computer or other electronic devices and records about how Comey managed his records while he was FBI Director (Judicial Watch, Inc., v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 17-cv-01520)). The metadata information may include details about when the memos were created or edited and by whom.
How is it the FBI allowed Mr. Comey to walk out the door with sensitive documents about President Trump? It is remarkable that we must sue the FBI in federal court to get answers about this scandal.
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