Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett schooled a Washington, D.C.-area attorney who mocked his legal expertise over claims of James Comey being a “whistleblower.”
Jarrett went after Bradley Moss for his attack following President Donald Trump’s tweet quoting him about the fired FBI Director and how he handled his classified memos, as determined by the latest report from the Justice Department inspector general.
“They could have charged Comey with theft of government documents, 641 of the Criminal Code, because the IG found these were not his personal documents, these were government documents,” Jarrett had said and was quoted by Trump in a tweet last week.
“They could have charged Comey with theft of government documents, 641 of the Criminal Code, because the IG found these were not his personal documents, these were government documents.” @GreggJarrett “Comey’s claim that these were just his own personal recollections would not..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2019
….pass the laugh test, and the Inspector General just knocked that down.” @ByronYork @LouDobbs
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2019
Moss disagreed with the claim that Comey could have been charged with stealing government documents since he chose to keep his classified memos at his home instead of a government facility. The national security attorney tweeted that if Jarrett was a “real lawyer” he would be aware that “the DOJ Criminal Resource Manual rejects applying 18 USC 641 in a situation like the one involving Comey.”
Wrong. If @GreggJarrett were a real lawyer he would know the DOJ Criminal Resource Manual rejects applying 18 USC 641 in a situation like the one involving Comey. https://t.co/Kjt3LTQRXu
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) August 31, 2019
Jarrett quickly fired back, telling Moss he was actually the one who was wrong and that Comey was no heroic “whistleblower” as many of the left have been contending.
“Bradley Moss is mistaken. Comey was not a whistleblower. His motive was not transparency, but to trigger a special counsel,” Jarrett tweeted.
Bradley Moss is mistaken. Comey was not a whistleblower. His motive was not transparency, but to trigger a special counsel. And Memo 2 that he leaked to his lawyers was classified. All of this is in the IG Report. Thus, an 18 USC 641 charge could have been brought.
— Gregg Jarrett (@GreggJarrett) September 1, 2019
“And Memo 2 that he leaked to his lawyers was classified. All of this is in the IG Report. Thus, an 18 USC 641 charge could have been brought,” he wrote, referring to Memo 2 which Comey reportedly sent to his friend and lawyer Daniel Richman as well as to his two other lawyers, Patrick Fitzgerald and David Kelley.
“Four of the six words in Memo 2 that the FBI determined were classified were the names of foreign countries being discussed by the president,” the report from IG Michael Horowitz stated.
Jarrett’s shot at Moss wasn’t over though as he called him out for using an unprofessional “personal attack” instead of a civil disagreement.
Mr. Moss is free to disagree with me. Lawyers disagree with one another all the time. But reducing it to a personal attack that I’m not a “real lawyer” diminishes both his argument and himself.
— Gregg Jarrett (@GreggJarrett) September 1, 2019
The left has continued to portray Comey as a hero for his actions while the former FBI chief has even declared that the DOJ inspector general’s report has vindicated him of accusations that he leaked classified information.
The IG report concluded that Comey “set a dangerous example” with his actions.
“Former Director Comey 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,” the report stated.
Not surprisingly, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sang Comey’s praises in a CNN appearance in which he defended his actions in the face of an “extraordinary situation.”
“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/jQ7jNvkxyL pic.twitter.com/ZS0QC2jyYR
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) August 30, 2019
The Washington Examiner’s Byron York threw cold water on the left’s narrative.
“But Comey did, in fact, leak classified information. It’s right there in the report. It wasn’t much classified information, and it was perhaps not terribly important, and Justice Department officials concluded it was not worth prosecuting. But Comey leaked classified material,” he wrote in an opinion piece published on Sunday.
“Comey’s defenders can argue that just a few words on Memo 2 were classified. They can argue, as Comey apparently believes, that even those words should not have been classified,” he added. “But the fact is, they were classified, and Comey sent them to unauthorized recipients, and after the FBI learned about it, the bureau took steps to clean up what it called a ‘spill’ of classified material.”
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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