Trump Tweets False Comey Claim After Misleading ‘Fox And Friends’ Report

President Donald Trump took to Twitter Monday morning to blast out a misleading clip from the Fox show “Fox and Friends,” and then followed it up with an unsubstantiated claim that former F.B.I. Director James Comey leaked classified information.

“It turns out, (Comey) may have broken the rules,” said the clip. “A brand new bombshell report accuses Comey of putting our national security at risk. According to the Hill, the former FBI director's personal memos detailing private conversations with President Trump contained top secret information.”

READ: Trump Twitter Comments: President Attacks James Comey, Democrats And Mainstream Media

The tweet with the clip reads: “Report accuses material James Comey leaked to a friend contained top secret information.”

Trump followed it up with his own take.

“James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media. That is so illegal!” wrote the president.

The “Fox and Friends” tweet and clip mischaracterizes what is in the Monday report. The Hill reported that Comey created seven memorandums after speaking to Trump nine times, four of which had classified information. After he was fired, Comey allegedly had a friend release one of the memos to the media.

The tweet text is the opposite of what the Hill report said. Comey, under oath, testified that the single memo given to his friend to leak to the media did not contain classified information. The Hill didn’t refute that. The clip is misleading because the Hill reported that four of the memos are classified but didn’t say which level of classification. There are three levels: confidential, secret and top secret.

Trump is a noted fan of the show “Fox and Friends” and often tweets about news featured on the show.

READ: Why James Comey's Memos On Donald Trump Will Not Be Made Public By FBI

Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway was a guest on the show Monday and discussed the report with a little more nuance. What the report alleges is that Comey may have broken F.B.I. protocol with the memorandums. Since the memos contained classified information, there is a possibility Comey mishandled that info. The report didn’t allege that it was leaked.

However, Comey did mishandle the classified information, it would be similar to the actions taken by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with her e-mails. Shortly before the 2016 presidential election, Comey gave a harsh rebuke of Clinton for her actions.

Comey characterized the documents mentioned in the Monday report as personal memos. But according to the Hill, the F.B.I. designated them as government documents, which means Comey could have also violated F.B.I. policy by disclosing the single memo.

The policy states: “[A]ll information acquired by me in connection with my official duties with the FBI and all official material to which I have access remain the property of the United States of America … (an agent) will not reveal, by any means, any information or material from or related to FBI files or any other information acquired by virtue of my official employment to any unauthorized recipient without prior official written authorization by the FBI.”