Fox anchor refuses to accept Fox News' independent assessment that Comey's disclosure wasn't a leak

Chris Wallace: “I very much hesitate to go against you and especially even more so against the brain room”

From the June 9 edition of Fox News' Shepard Smith Reporting:

Video file

SHEPARD SMITH (HOST): Couple of points of fact on this matter of him calling Director Comey a “leaker.” He's referring, of course, of the sharing of the contents of the memo with his friend here from Columbia Law here in New York, or NYU Law -- I believe it's Columbia Law --

CHRIS WALLACE: No, Columbia Law.

SMITH: Columbia Law, and then that being shared with The New York Times. Is it a leak? Well, we reported on this yesterday. This is from our brain room, which provides us with information on matters like this.

It's not a leak. First, Comey shared memos when he was no longer a government employee, and second, writes the brain room, “the information contained within Comey's memos was not classified.” So, technically it's not a leak, but the president does, or his counsel suggested that there could be a legal matter here.

WALLACE: Well, I have to say, respectfully -- and I very much hesitate to go against you and especially even more so against the brain room. A leak is a leak. If you give information to somebody -- if you and I had a conversation and I proceed to leak it to a newspaper, doesn't have to be classified, and I can be a private citizen, but I'm still leaking what went on and what was supposedly a confidential if not classified conversation. And yes, the lawyer, Mr. Kasowitz, has suggested that he is going to file a complain with the Justice Department and with the Senate Intelligence Committee, and apparently there are some regulations that say that any kind of information that you get in your position at the FBI, you're not allowed to share with unauthorized sources. But basically, the sanction against it is, he can't get that job back again, and I don't think that Mr. Comey is going to be the FBI director any time soon.

SMITH: Yeah, we'll see how that plays out.

Previously:

A “bogus distraction”: Former Watergate prosecutor calls out Trump's legal team for threatening to file a complaint against Comey

Legal experts debunk right-wing media’s desperate lies about James Comey’s memo

Legal experts: Comey's testimony described serious misconduct by Trump including “abuse of power”