IG Report: Comey Used Private Email Account to Conduct FBI Business

Fired FBI Director James Comey used a personal email account to conduct official business following the time he was investigating Hillary Clinton for similar breaches of federal conduct, according to the Inspector General report on the FBI released Thursday.

“We identified numerous instances in which Comey used a personal email account (a Gmail account) to conduct FBI business,” the inspector general wrote.

The report provides five instances in which Comey used a private email address, all on November 8, 2016 or later. He had closed out the Clinton email investigation by this time.

The former FBI director reportedly never used his personal email account to transmit non-public information, but the inspector general noted Comey’s actions were “inconsistent” with Department of Justice (DOJ) policy.

“We found that, given the absence of exigent circumstances and the frequency with which the use of personal email occurred, Comey’s use of a personal email account on multiple occasions for unclassified FBI business to be inconsistent with the DOJ Policy Statement,” the inspector general wrote.