Brit Hume shared this “very smart thread from John Huber on why exactly James Comey is not being charged for leaking classified material despite a referral from the IG’s office.
Very smart thread on why DOJ decided against prosecuting Comey (for now). https://t.co/9fgS6M8x6Y
— Brit Hume (@brithume) August 2, 2019
THREAD ==>
Recap: I identified Comey breaking the law and the *specific* memo he leaked over a year ago. And more recently that he lied to Congress about it: https://t.co/F31X1NFHrT
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) August 1, 2019
The standard DOJ use when deciding to proceed with a prosecution like this (or decline) isn’t “did Comey break the law?”
(which he did)The standard is: “can I *prove* Comey broke the law *beyond a reasonable doubt* to the satisfaction of a jury?”
& DOJ didn’t think they could
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) August 1, 2019
Proving beyond a reasonable doubt would be difficult, because Comey was very clever in doing the leaking and attacking Trump:
—He didn’t leak all the memos
—He didn’t give the memos to the press but selectively had some of their contents read out by his “lawyers”
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) August 1, 2019
Comey also didn’t leak certain contents of the memos that remain secret to this day – e.g. whether Flynn was under a FISA, Trump’s calls with Putin etc
These are still redacted by the FBI and we don’t know their content
To a judge/jury that would show Comey was being selective
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) August 1, 2019
Also the classified memo was *retrospectively* classified by the FBI after Comey had already leaked it
His defense here would be that he didn’t know it was classified at the time
Comey can also say he himself classified some memos at SECRET level – and *didn’t* leak them
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) August 1, 2019
The law Comey broke doesn’t *require* any intent, but does require “gross negligence”
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) August 1, 2019
Comey would quite easily be able to argue that *at worst* he was negligent, but not grossly because he did protect some content of the memos he leaked, didn’t leak entire memos and they weren’t classified at the time (and where he should have classified them he attempted to)
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) August 1, 2019
Now I personally don’t agree with any of those defenses, but that’s irrelevant. Comey’s defense team would have a decent shot at introducing *reasonable doubt*, endangering the success of a prosecution. Prosecutors want the thing watertight up front
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) August 1, 2019
Disappointing but to end on a positive – that the IG referred Comey for potential criminal prosecution is a good sign
AG Barr/DOJ declining is only a good sign if they’re saving their ammunition for more a more watertight case involving Comey.
That, we’ll have to see…
/ENDS
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) August 1, 2019
And now it’s back over to AG Barr:
Former @FBI Director @Comey is not out of the woods yet and could face legal jeopardy upon additional reports from @TheJusticeDept IG and US Attorney John Durham.https://t.co/tsPvQllgQS
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 2, 2019
***
Related:
Judicial Watch: FOIA’d docs show FBI went to James Comey’s house to collect Trump-related memos after he was fired (2 were ‘missing’) https://t.co/LhbkQP9qm7
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) July 31, 2019
Oh, STOP IT: James Comey’s kid at Christmas routine about an ‘American patriot’ taking ‘center stage’ is flat-out EMBARRASSING https://t.co/GfaQP5dRMo
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) July 21, 2019