--- title: James Comey Says He 'Never' Leaked Information on Election description: FBI Director James Comey said during testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that he hasn't ever leaked information to the media. canonical: https://time.com/4764905/james-comey-hearing-fbi-leaks/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-03T14:46:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:43:35.604Z article:section: Politics og:title: James Comey Says He 'Never' Leaked Information on Trump or Clinton og:description: He was asked if he'd ever been an anonymous source og:url: https://time.com/4764905/james-comey-hearing-fbi-leaks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41fdfba48c2da21a/6988cbcc0b72e30e1a6eda26/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: FBI Director Comey prepares to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: James Comey Says He 'Never' Leaked Information on Trump or Clinton twitter:description: He was asked if he'd ever been an anonymous source twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41fdfba48c2da21a/6988cbcc0b72e30e1a6eda26/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # James Comey Says He 'Never' Leaked Information on Trump or Clinton > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 3, 2017 2:46 PM UTC  James Comey prepares to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2017. James Comey prepares to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2017. Kevin Lamarque—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 3, 2017 2:46 PM UTC FBI Director James Comey said during [testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee](http://time.com/4764715/james-comey-senate-hearing-russia-trump-clinton/) Wednesday that he hasn’t ever leaked information to the media about investigations into Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. “Never,” Comey said when committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley asked him if he’d “ever been an anonymous source in news reports in matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation.” Grassley then asked if Comey had ever authorized anyone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source on these topics, and he said “no.” When asked if any classified information “relating to President Trump or his associates” had been declassified and shared with journalists, Comey said, “Not to my knowledge.” “There have been a variety of leaks,” Comey said. “Leaks are always a problem, but especially in the past three to six months.” Comey is expected to field questions about the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election during Wednesday’s hearing. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4764905/james-comey-hearing-fbi-leaks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4764905/james-comey-hearing-fbi-leaks/"},"headline":"James Comey Says He 'Never' Leaked Information on Trump or Clinton","datePublished":"2017-05-03T14:46:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:43:35.604Z","description":"Comey is expected to field questions about the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election","url":"https://time.com/4764905/james-comey-hearing-fbi-leaks/","keywords":["Congress","FBI","Donald Trump","James Comey"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41fdfba48c2da21a/6988cbcc0b72e30e1a6eda26/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41fdfba48c2da21a/6988cbcc0b72e30e1a6eda26/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FBI Director Comey prepares to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington","caption":"FBI Director Comey prepares to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington","creditText":"Kevin Lamarque—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4764905/james-comey-hearing-fbi-leaks/","name":"James Comey Says He 'Never' Leaked Information on Trump or Clinton"}}]}] ```