Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper defended former FBI Director James Comey on CNN following the release of the Justice Department inspector general’s report.
The report found Comey’s notes memorializing his conversations with Trump were disclosed without authorization “to achieve a personally desired outcome.”
It also found that while he did not leak classified information, he “failed to live up to this responsibility. By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees — and the many thousands more former FBI employees — who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information.”
Clapper, having worked with Comey and considered him to be a friend, said on Friday, “I think he did what he thought was the right thing,” but he did not dispute what the inspector general found.
“Yeah, it violated the standard protocols and procedures of the FBI. I don’t think there’s a rule book, though, for this extraordinary situation involving potential, and emphasize potential, criminality of a president,” Clapper said on Friday.
“So Jim did what he thought was the right thing to do for the country. Now, one man’s leaker is another man’s whistleblower. And in this case, I think he was whistle-blowing to the public. We would not have known what we’ve since learned, I think, were it not for the action that Jim took,” he added.
