Texas law professor shoots down Trump lawyer’s attack on Comey for ‘leaking’
Responding to the day’s top story about fired FBI Director James Comey’s testimony regarding his conversations with President Donald Trump, CNN analyst and Texas law professor Steve Vladeck posted a series of tweets eviscerating the president’s argument that Comey’s decision to leak his memos to the press was illegal.
“Did Comey’s orchestration of the memo leak break the law? In a word, no,” Vladeck wrote at the beginning of his thread. “Don’t get caught up on whether it was a ‘leak’ or not; no statute prohibits ‘leaks,’ as such.”
He went on to write that “unless memo includes ‘information relating to the national defense’ (& no indication it did), then leak doesn’t violate Espionage Act.”
Although Comey didn’t break the law by leaking his memos on Trump, he may have, according to Vladeck, violated a “federal conversion-of-property statute” that leaves open the question about whether “‘pure ‘information’ constitutes property.” Although it could be applied legally, Vladeck said conviction under the conversion-of-property statue is unlikely because the memos had no monetary value.
Though “there may be ethical issues” with Comey’s release of the memos, Vladeck said “any legal argument is a real stretch, here.”
Read Vladeck’s entire tweet thread below.
1. Did #Comey‘s orchestration of the memo leak break the law? In a word, no.
In a few more words:
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 8, 2017
2. Don’t get caught up on whether it was a “leak” or not; no statute prohibits “leaks,” as such. Q. is whether _another_ statute applies…
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 8, 2017
3. Unless memo includes “information relating to the national defense” (& no indication it did), then leak doesn’t violate Espionage Act.
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 8, 2017
4. Only real candidate is the federal conversion-of-property statute, 18 U.S.C. § 641: https://t.co/JqSwfUfatO. Did Comey “convert” memo?
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 8, 2017
5. In Morison, 4th Cir. noted it’s an open Q whether “pure ‘information’ constitutes property … under § 641”: https://t.co/6kyNym3CAg
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 8, 2017
6. Leak prosecutions under § 641 have instead focused on value of the information being leaked. Here, the memo has _no_ pecuniary value.
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 8, 2017
7. So I don’t think a § 641 prosecution would work either. Of course, he could still have been fired for doing it (that ship has sailed)…
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 8, 2017
8. …and there may be ethical issues (which I’ll leave to the ethics experts). But any legal argument is a real stretch, here.
/end
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 8, 2017
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