Former FBI Director James Comey was being investigated by the Office of Special Counsel for possibly violating the Hatch Act before his firing, The Washington Times reports.
The OSC ended its investigation when Comey was dismissed, since the office only handles government employees. Documents from this probe have since been released to attorney Ty Clevenger, head of the Transparency Project, following a Freedom of Information Act request.
"It's too bad the OSC didn't have Comey's book and his memos before he was fired, because he has made the case — better than anyone else — that he was playing politics at the FBI," Clevenger told the Times.
"Even so, I'm a little surprised that OSC would open an investigation based on a letter that he sent to Congress. That letter certainly had political consequences, but I don't see how you could construe it as political activity," he added.
The investigation concerned a number of complaints against Comey for his handling of the agency's investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, many of which claimed he had interfered in the 2016 election in which she was the Democratic candidate for president.
Many complaints singled out his announcement that the FBI was further investigating emails found on the laptop of former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who was at that time married to Clinton's closest aide, Huma Abedin.
"As you know, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has been investigating allegations that you violated the Hatch Act when you made public statements and other communications about the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) investigation into former Secretary Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email server," wrote Erica S. Hamrick, the deputy chief of OSC's Hatch Act Unit, in a letter to Comey dated May 17.
"However, you are no longer employed as Director of the FBI," she wrote. "Accordingly, in accordance with OSC's policy not to continue investigations once an employee leaves federal service, OSC will close its file in this matter without further action."
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