[Washington Examiner] James Comey, the former FBI director who oversaw the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s unlawful handling of official emails, has been chastised by the Justice Department for his improper handling of official memos.
The irony is so thick that it’s hard not to laugh. But there’s a serious problem here: Comey’s and Clinton’s actions reflect an arrogance of power and a gross disregard for the rule of law. The work that public servants produce belongs to the public. It doesn’t belong in one’s study at home or on one’s homebrewed server.
Comey, according to the Office of the Inspector General at the DOJ, brought home his memos summarizing his conversations with President Trump. He kept them in a safe at home, rather than at DOJ. When he was fired, he didn’t return the memos to the FBI. Instead, he kept the memos and then shared them, through friends, with reporters.
But these memos weren’t Comey’s to do with as he pleased. They were, quite obviously, official FBI work product, even though Comey claimed to believe otherwise. The IG wrote that "Comey's characterization of the Memos as personal records finds no support in the law and is wholly incompatible with the plain language of the statutes, regulations, and policies defining Federal records, and the terms of Comey's FBI Employment Agreement."
Federal records include "all recorded information, regardless of form or characteristics, made or received by a Federal agency ... in connection with the transaction of public business."
Comey wasn’t meeting with Trump as an old friend or to talk real estate. Their meetings were clearly part of Comey doing his job. Some of the material was classified. "As Comey well knew, classified information is never considered personal property; rather, it is the property of the U.S. government." 
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