Former DNI Chief James Clapper defended James Comey one day after the DOJ Inspector General released a report on Comey’s mishandling of his classified memos.
Although it was determined that Comey violated FBI policies pertaining to retention, handling and dissemination of FBI records and information, Barr declined prosecution.
Comey drafted 7 memos stemming from 9 conversations he had with President Trump and he ultimately leaked one of the memos to the New York Times through his friend-turned-lawyer-turned-unpaid-FBI-official Daniel Richman to prompt a special counsel.
Clapper, who was also a part of the failed coup to remove Trump from office, portrayed his friend Comey as a heroic whistleblower rather than a corrupt leaker.
Even worse, Clapper suggested Trump may have engaged in criminal conduct.
“Without these memos, the Mueller investigation may not have happened, right? And yet Comey broke policy to make sure that this investigation did happen. How do you reconcile that?” CNN host Brianna Keilar asked Clapper Friday afternoon.
“I think he did what he thought was the right thing. I don’t take issue with what the Department of Justice inspector general said. Yeah, it violated the standard protocols and procedures of the FBI. I don’t think there’s a rulebook, though, for this extraordinary situation involving potential — and I emphasize potential — criminality of a president.”
“And so Jim did what he thought was the right thing to do for the country,” Clapper said, adding, “One man’s leaker is another man’s whistleblower and in this case I think he was whistleblowing to the public.”
WATCH:
“I think he was whistleblowing to the public,” ex-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says after the Justice Department's inspector general said James Comey broke FBI policy by keeping and leaking Trump meeting memos https://t.co/1SnwzJEEJm pic.twitter.com/qBPpf4ENZk
— CNN (@CNN) August 30, 2019
