Grassley demands answers from DOJ on Comey memos classification

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Wednesday questioned whether former FBI Director James Comey violated Justice Department policy last year when he shared memos of his conversations with President Trump.

In a statement Wednesday night, Grassley questioned whether leaking the memos to a Columbia professor would violate department policies.

Grassley also wrote a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to learn more about the chain of custody for the memos, and whether Rosenstein has initiated an investigation into Comey’s handling of the memos.

{mosads}Multiple memos Comey wrote as personal recollections of his interactions with President Trump about the Russia investigation contained classified information.

Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee last June that he shared at least one of the memos, which he considered personal documents, with a law professor at Columbia University. He then asked that professor to leak the information from one memo to the media in the hopes of increasing pressure to get a special prosecutor named in the Russia investigation.

Comey testified that he believed his personal memos were unclassified.

President Trump fired Comey in May.