The Federal Bureau of investigation will not release copies of memos drafted by former director James Comey recounting his interactions with President Donald Trump, the bureau said on Friday.
The Daily Beast filed a Freedom of Information Act request after it was revealed that Comey had drafted memos detailing each of his nine conversations with President Trump. Comey told a Senate committee last week that those conversations convinced him that the president was attempting to pressure him into pledging fealty and easing up on a probe into former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn.
The FBI said it could not release the memos in response to that request, as “there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records, and release of the information in these responsive records could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.” The law enforcement proceeding at issue is likely the FBI’s investigation into alleged Russian election-meddling, the Trump campaign’s potential involvement in it, and the possibility that Trump committed obstruction of justice by firing Comey last month—a move the president admitted was prompted by the persistence of the FBI’s Russia investigation. The Daily Beast is currently party to a lawsuit initially brought on behalf of USA Today seeking the release of these records.
—Lachlan Markay
