James Comey leaked information to a friend to prompt special counsel

During his testimony Thursday morning, former FBI Director James Comey said that he intentionally leaked details of an Oval Office meeting with the president. The leak was done secondhand, as he told a friend to leak it for him, in hopes that it would prompt a special investigation into Russian ties with the Trump campaign. “My judgment was, I needed to get that out into the public square, and so I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter." Comey said that he did not want to leak the memo himself because he felt it would cause a media swarm.