Judicial Watch: FBI Asks Comey to Preserve Records

Judicial Watch and Daily Caller News Foundation Ask for a Court Order to Preserve Comey Memos of Conversations with Obama, Clinton, Schumer

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that the FBI has stated it sent a letter to fired FBI director James Comey requesting him to preserve federal records and return any agency records in his possession not already returned to the FBI. The letter was sent in response to Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) concerns that Mr. Comey kept government records on personal email accounts.

Judicial Watch, on behalf of itself and DCNF, today also filed a motion asking a federal court to issue an order for preservation. Judicial Watch argues that there is reason to be concerned that the responsive records could be lost or destroyed.” Judicial Watch points out that in June 2018, the DOJ’s Inspector General stated, “We identified numerous instances in which Comey used a personal email account (a Gmail account) to conduct FBI business.”

The filing comes in an April 2018 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed after the DOJ failed to respond to Judicial Watch’s May 2017 request and DCNF’s February 2018 request (Judicial Watch and The Daily Caller News Foundation v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:18-cv-00967)). The lawsuit is seeking:

• All records written or ordered written by Comey summarizing his conversations with any of the following individuals: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Senator Chuck Schumer, Representative Nancy Pelosi, and Senator John McCain.
• All records that identify and describe all meetings between former FBI Director James Comey and President Barack Obama.

“It is incredible that it took Judicial Watch’s prodding of the FBI for it to ask Mr. Comey to return federal records – over a year after he was fired,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Mr. Comey continues to be protected by the FBI and DOJ. It is outrageous that the agencies oppose a simple preservation order to make sure no Comey records are lost or destroyed.”

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