The Case of Comey's Memos

News  |  Oct 16, 2017

The New York Times reported in May that former FBI Director James Comey kept contemporaneous notes of his interactions with President Trump. Following that disclosure and Comey's confirmation of their existence during his Senate testimony in June, several news organizations and watchdog groups filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the FBI to make those notes public. 

Now the FBI is asking a judge to rule against disclosure, and government lawyers want to plead their case in private:

"Publicly explaining in any greater detail why the release of the Comey Memos would be detrimental to the pending investigation would itself disclose law enforcement sensitive information that could interfere with the pending investigation," the government wrote.

One of Comey's memos details the time when President Trump asked everyone but Comey to leave a meeting and then allegedly suggested the then-FBI director end his investigation of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. A second memo captured what Comey felt was an inappropriate one-on-one dinner in January during which, Comey says, President Trump asked for his loyalty.

Government lawyers ask judge to reject CNN's efforts to make Comey memos public (CNN)