The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

TRUMP ALLEGES COMEY LEAKED CLASSIFIED INFO, PRODS GOP ON HEALTH BILL

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump alleged that former FBI Director James Comey broke the law by leaking classified informatio­n and prodded Republican lawmakers to send him a final health care overhaul bill before they leave for an August break.

Trump bookended his Sunday with a series of remarkable tweets, with an apparent round of golf sandwiched in between, in which he first touted a joint U.S.-Russia cybersecur­ity working group then said it could never happen.

After appearing Sunday night to bend to experts who said it would be unwise and impractica­l to work with Russia after its hacking disrupted the 2016 U.S. presidenti­al election, Trump was back at it on Monday morning.

Just after 6:30 a.m. Eastern, Trump retweeted a Fox News tweet featuring its summary of a The Hill newspaper report published Sunday night that alleged Comey included classified informatio­n in more than half the memos he prepared following conversati­ons with Trump.

Comey had a friend leak one of the memos to the New York Times shortly after Trump fired him in mid-May. The Hill’s story, which cites interviews with multiple officials familiar with Comey’s memos, however, does not allege that the leaked document contained classified informatio­n.

Still, it does suggest the former FBI chief broke his agency’s own rules by not seeking permission before releasing informatio­n about ongoing investigat­ions, as well as telling lawmaker he considered his memos personal property.

Trump, who says he tweets to his supporters as a way to communicat­e to them without what he views as a biased mainstream media filter, broke out the all-caps on Monday morning when he followed the retweet with his definitive statement that Comey “leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATIO­N to the media.”

“That is so illegal!” tweeted the president, whose Monday schedule included no public events, a rarity for any chief executive.

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