White House lays out case that Comey broke the law

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made the case for why former FBI Director James Comey broke the law, expanding on comments from the day before about how federal prosecutors should consider bringing a case. Comey testified earlier in 2017 that he arranged for a close friend to leak the contents of personal memos detailing his encounters with President Trump. The purpose of the leak to the media, he said, was to ensure a special counsel would be appointed to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

A reporter challenged Sanders on why Comey’s leaks would be illegal if there was no classified information in his memos. Sanders was prepared for the question and read her response from a statement at the lectern: “The memos that Comey leaked were created on an FBI computer while he was the director,” Sanders responded. “He claims they were private property, but they clearly followed the protocol of an official FBI document. Leaking FBI memos on a sensitive case regardless of classification violates federal laws including the Privacy Act, standard FBI employment agreements, and nondisclosure agreements all personnel must sign. I think that is clean and clear that that would be a violation.”