Judicial Watch Sues FBI Over Comey's Book

FBI Director James Comey pauses while making a statement at FBI Headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Comey said the FBI will not recommend criminal charges in its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Judicial Watch is nothing if not relentless in its pursuit of verifying the tales that politicians and politicos tell. At the moment, they’ve got their sights on former FBI Director James Comey, vocal as he’s been lately about what a good guy he is and how he’s always just tried to be an honest broker for the good of the country.

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But Comey has a few problems, one of them is the fact that — by his own admission — he turned over a confidential and sensitive memo created when he was still FBI director (and apparently detailing private conversations with President Donald Trump) to a lawyer friend who in turn gave it to a reporter.

In its April 17 press statement, Judicial Watch noted that during an April 15 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, former FBI Director Comey admitted that he leaked his own memos to the media in order to trigger the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate President Donald Trump.

“Look, it’s true,” said Comey, “I gave that unclassified memo to my (friend), who was also acting as my lawyer, but this wasn’t a lawyer task, and asked him to give it to a reporter.”

Cue Judicial Watch, who seems to be alleging that if Comey leaked that memo to a reporter, could he also have used ill-gotten source material for his book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership ?

Comey has been making the interview rounds to spark interest in the book, and has reportedly received a $2 million+ advance for its publication. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton is interested in determining if Comey — known as he is for using confidential material to achieve his agenda — did the same to fill the pages of his tome.

“James Comey illegally took and then leaked material from his FBI memos in order to get a Special Counsel appointed to target President Trump,” Fitton said in a statement. “And so now Judicial Watch is asking questions about whether James Comey is getting special treatment from the FBI to use these ill-gotten FBI documents in his book.”

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In the FOIA lawsuit, Judicial Watch asks for access to the following:

“All records of communications between the FBI and former FBI director James Comey relating to an upcoming book to be authored by Mr. Comey and published.

“All records, including but not limited to forms completed by former FBI director James Comey, relating to the requirement for prepublication review by the FBI of any book to be authored by Comey with the intent to be published or otherwise publicly available.”

This is the sixth lawsuit Judicial Watch has filed against the Department of Justice related to Comey’s book deal and memos Comey may have written after private talks with Trump.

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