Thread by @DawsonSField

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork It is possible that Comey underclassified the information. But as an OCA, he has the authority to make those judgement calls and he did. The reason I don't believe he underclassified is the process that was taken to classify his UC memos. It will take a couple of tweets though...

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork If Comey had clearly underclassified the document & it was being released through a normal process how would it be resolved? It would have been sent to State (it was foreign policy info) to let State decide if it was classified.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork One of the keys in OIG report is the information was not classified according to the FBI security guidelines. It was FP info and might have been under State guidelines but the FBI had no authority to officially make the call. They could call it classified then let state decide.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork So the proper way to upclassify Comey's memos would be for Baker to punt it to State to let them decide. An acceptable way would have been for Baker, an OCA, to classify it out of an abundance of caution & timing issues, then send it to State for final decision. Baker did neither

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork If Baker really believed it was classified, he could have ignored FBI policy & State policy & classified it himself as an FBI Original Classification Authority (OCA) overriding Comey's authority as an OCA.

But he didn't do that either.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork Instead Baker got Page & Strzok to go with him to Sally Moyer, who was not an OCA but legal staff for the CI Division. She was familiar with FBI policy (which did not cover that information for classification) so Baker, Page & Strzok convinced her that based upon their experience

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork in the MYE case, they understood State Dept classification standards & that State would classify this information even though FBI would not. The 3 of them talked her into marking it classified in her handwriting, even though she was not an OCA.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork Baker could have marked it in his handwriting & signed off on it by himself as an OCA. He did not do that because then he would be on the hook for it. So he talked a junior attorney (he was the top lawyer at FBI) into putting it in her handwriting not his.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork Then Baker had Moyer take it to Priestap with an affidavit to justify classifying the information. When Baker was in the original meeting & could have signed it himself. But they spent hours coming up with justifications to make Priestap sign it, which he did using his OCA.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork Then McCabe referred Comey to OIG for leaking this classified information! McCabe could have classified it himself too as an OCA, but didn't so he could make the referral without his fingerprints on it.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork So this was all over the 6 words including 3 country names which make up 4 of the words. Fortunately, CNN filed a FOIA which FBI denied on the grounds it was classified. So the judge viewed it in private to review if the information was legally classified information.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork The judge ruled that 5 of the 6 words did not meet the legal threshold for being classified. So now we are down to Comey leaking at most 1 word of classified information, a country's name. Not judgment calls, not within the legal parameters for classification under State policy.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork Even that one word is questionable, because the FBI never asked the State Department (it's been more than 2 years) to review the FBI's unauthorized determination of items as classified under Baker, Page & Strzok's interpretation of State classification policy.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork So per the OIG & a federal judge, Comey leaked 1 word that might be classified under State Dept security policies. But we do not know if that word is actually classified because the FBI chose to pretend they had the authority to classify it based upon Baker & Page's word.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork Yet neither Baker or Page put their writing on that document, they got Moyer & Priestap to do it.
They even put the wrong declassification date on it, obscuring what day the memo was classified. They set the declass date as 12/31 rather than 6/6 to hide when it was classified.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork Then Page & Strzok took the copies with Moyer's writing & Priestap's authority & added classification markings to the documents. Making it appear that they were marked classified when created, rather than being upclassified afterwards.
Total set up!

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork Even better, the attorney's that Comey leaked that 1 word to, did not share any of the 6 words alleged to be classified according to the OIG report.
So Comey at most leaked 1 possibly classified word to 3 attorneys, at least 2 if not all 3 had security clearances!

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork Now you also have to recognize that there was a 2nd leaker of Comey's memos. It wasn't Comey's team. So it was one of the 6 people remaining at FBI that had access to those memos before May 16. McCabe, Baker, Page, Strzok, Rybicki or Priestap.

@MSH3RIDAN @Reds_Herring @ByronYork McCabe, Baker, Page & Strzok are all suspects in either criminal or OIG leak investigations. So how guilty are they if they leaked that memo to the NYTs, then classified it in violation of FBI policy, using 2 scapegoats, then referred Comey for prosecution for the same leak!