A week after James Comey testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, CNN is suing the FBI over memos sent between the former-director and President Donald Trump. According to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, “Despite high public interest in the content of the memos, Comey’s testimony that the records are not classified and a ruling from the Justice Department that the FBI should expedite CNN’s [Freedom of Information Act] request for the memos, the FBI has not provided either the documents or a reason to withhold them.”
Prior to his being fired, Comey took notes documenting his private discussions with Trump, who in mid-May tweeted, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Shortly thereafter, Comey released the memos to a friend, Columbia Law Professor Daniel Richman, who slipped them to the press.
CNN wants the FBI to release the documents “without further delay”:
“We think the public has the right to see them,” CNN president Jeff Zucker told Variety. “It’s in the pursuit of what we do every day. We think it’s in every journalist’s interest and we are happy to take the lead on this. (Via)
Comey reportedly handed over the memos to Robert Mueller, who’s tasked with “investigating Trump to determine if the current commander-in-chief obstructed justice, while Richman returned his copy to the FBI.
(Via CNN)