Former FBI director James Comey used his personal email account to conduct official business, despite investigating Hillary Clinton for the same security oversight, a new report has revealed.
The long-awaited The Justice Department inspector general report was released late last week. It details the FBI’s handling of the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server when secretary of state, something that was used by Donald Trump to cast doubt on her suitability as a presidential candidate.
“We identified numerous instances in which Comey used a personal email account to conduct unclassified FBI business,” the report revealed. “We found that, given the absence of exigent circumstances and the frequency with which the use of personal email occurred, Comey’s use of a personal email account for unclassified FBI business to be inconsistent with Department policy.”
Comey apparently forwarded official emails to his personal webmail address when he wanted to work on an unclassified document which would be widely distributed: such as a speech or an FBI-wide missive.
As such, the former FBI boss claimed he had no concerns over the breaking of department policy “because there will always be a copy of it in the FBI system and I wasn't doing classified work there.”
Incredibly, Comey claimed the practice was necessary because he didn’t have an unclassified FBI connection at home that worked, and no one thought to fix it.
That betrays a serious failure of cybersecurity best practice at an institution that ought to know better.
Clinton responded with a short deadpan tweet: “But my emails.”
She has gone on record in the past as claiming that Comey’s investigation into the affair – and his reopening of that investigation just days before voters went to the polls, before closing it again – helped to cost her the presidency.
Ironically, several White House officials in the Trump administration have been accused of using personal email accounts for government business.