Former acting AG: Potential for IG's Comey-centric report to 'lay bare a lot of the rumors or innuendo we've heard'

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Matthew Whitaker on potential IG report on James Comey

Matthew Whitaker on potential IG report on James Comey

Former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said the potential release of an inspector general report focusing on ex-FBI Director James Comey could shed new light on why he was fired.

Whitaker, who served in the interim between former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and current AG William Barr, claimed Wednesday on "The Story" that Comey and top brass operated as if they were "above the law."

"I think it's going to lay bare a lot of the rumors or innuendo we've heard," he said of the potential release from the inspector general.

"It's going to say specifically what Jim did leak and how he leaked it."

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The purported document is said to concentrate on the former FBI director's leaking of memos detailing his interactions with President Trump just prior to his firing.

Those memos were then passed by Comey to Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University, who in turn gave them to The New York Times.

Comey later admitted to that arrangement during congressional testimony.

According to Whitaker, that situation exemplified the questionable "culture" Comey oversaw inside the bureau.

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"These folks were running their own plays," he said. "They did not believe they were in the chain of command at the Department of Justice. Jim is really demonstrating why he was fired, quite frankly."

"I think one of the things [the IG report] is also going to lay bare, once you hear the story of Comey and McCabe told together, is that there was a culture of leaking in the senior offices at the FBI that really was out of control."

Whitaker, a former federal prosecutor in Iowa, added the culture he said Comey instilled was "dangerous."

Regarding Andrew McCabe, who was Comey's deputy director at the FBI, federal prosecutors appear to be close to a decision on whether to charge the newly minted CNN contributor.

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A source close to the process said that McCabe has had a “target on his back” because of the Justice Department inspector general findings against him over actions during the Hillary Clinton email investigation, as well as his role in the surveillance warrants against Trump campaign associates during the Russia election-meddling investigation. McCabe is a former deputy and acting director of the FBI.

Fox News' Brooke Singman, Catherine Herridge, Jake Gibson and Alex Pappas contributed to this report.