Federal Prosecutors Probing Years-Old Leak, Focusing on Former FBI Director James Comey: NYT
DIGGING
Federal prosecutors in Washington are reportedly investigating a leak of classified information on a Russian government document and are focusing on whether former FBI director James Comey was a part of that leak to the media, The New York Times reports. Officials are reportedly looking into two 2017 articles, from the Times and The Washington Post, about the FBI and Comey. The articles reportedly mentioned the Russian document, which played a role in Comey’s decision to announce in 2016 that the FBI would not recommend charging Hillary Clinton over the use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. The document, given to the U.S. by Dutch intelligence, reportedly described an email in which Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz suggested then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch would make sure Clinton would not be prosecuted in the email case. However, the sender and recipient of the email both denied making contact—opening up the possibility that it was Russian misinformation.
The investigation into the 2017 leak began in recent months, but no information on witness interviews or the involvement of a grand jury was available.