A Justice Department inspector general report concluded Thursday that former FBI Director James Comey did not 'live up' to his responsibility to safeguard sensitive information – but the DOJ has not recommended he be prosecuted for the leak of memos of his awkward conversations with President Donald Trump.

Comey 'failed to live up to this responsibility' to protect internal information as other FBI agents are expected to, according to the report published Thursday.

But the IG wrote: 'We found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the Memos to members of the media.'

The scathing criticism - and decision not to prosecute - was met with a furious reaction from Trump who tweeted: 'Perhaps never in the history of our Country has someone been more thoroughly disgraced and excoriated than James Comey in the just released Inspector General's Report. He should be ashamed of himself!

In Inspector General cited Former FBI Director James Comey with violating government policies for the way he kept and later disseminated memos, but the Justice Department declined to prosecute him

Comey highlighted a passage that found no evidence he leaked classified information

The former FBI director brought up Trump's repeated claim that he is a 'liar and a leaker'

Dueling tweets: Trump responded angrily hours after the report was published by the DOJ IG

Comey claimed exoneration on Twitter and blasted President Trump.

'And to all those who've spent two years talking about me 'going to jail' or being a 'liar and a leaker'—ask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president,' Comey wrote.

According to the IG: 'What was not permitted was the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive investigative information, obtained during the course of FBI employment, in order to achieve a personally desired outcome' of getting a special counsel appointed – Comey's stated goal.

'The OIG has provided this report to the FBI and to the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility for action they deem appropriate,' it said – a referral below a recommendation of sending it to a prosecutor.

Comey memorialized his personal interactions with President Trump, both during the transition and during the first months in the White House.

Comey created memos following his private meetings with President Trump

President Donald Trump fired Comey when he was on the West Coast and according to FBI officials ordered he not be allowed to return to the building

Revelations about Flynn and 'loyalty' request

Comey took notes immediately afterward and created memos, which he retained after Trump fired him.

He took steps to share them with an inner circle of top officials, and these officials took their own efforts to lock them in drawers – and preserve them after Comey's firing.

Among other things, Comey's memos featured Trump asking him to let the matter involving former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn go, as well as a request for 'loyalty.' They also recounted Trump's repeated inquiries about the unverified 'golden showers' episode described in former British intelligence officer Chris Steele's dossier about Trump and Russians.

Comey ultimately provided the memos to a friend, and a New York Times report on their content helped lead to the immediate appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller – a moment with a profound impact on the Trump presidency.

'Violated Department and FBI policies'

According to the IG investigation: ''We conclude that Comey's retention, handling, and dissemination of certain Memos violated Department and FBI policies, and his FBI Employment Agreement.'

Comey maintained the memos were his own. However, '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,' according to the IG.

However, they did not find Comey responsible for the leak of any classified material – which could have brought a serious sanction.

'We found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the Memos to members of the media,' investigators found.

Comey demands apology

Comey highlighted that passage on Twitter Thursday, then added: 'I don't need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a 'sorry we lied about you' would be nice.'

The report also said Comey failed to notify the bureau that memos after he left the FBI.

'Comey violated Department and FBI policies, and the terms of his FBI Employment Agreement, by retaining copies of [the memos] after he was removed as Director, regardless of each Memo's classification level,' the IG found.

Comey testified that he wanted the memos out because 'I thought it might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.' At the time, there was considerable debate over whether the Justice Department then headed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions would be able to carry out an impartial investigation that involved so many key players in the administration.

The FBI reviewed the memos in 2017 and found information was classified at the 'SECRET,' 'CONFIDENTIAL,' AND 'For Official Use Only' level.

The report is direct on the question of ownership. All information acquired by FBI personnel in connection with their official duties 'is the property of the United States.' Internal policy states that disclosures to the media 'must not address an ongoing investigation.' Comey was in a position to know that and FBI counterintelligence investigation was underway.

From Trump Tower to the Oval Office

A timeline of the investigation begins January 6, 2017, when Comey and Intelligence Community directors 'meet with President-elect Trump and his national security team at Trump Tower to discuss the Intelligence Community Assessment; Comey then meets with the President-elect one-on-one to alert Trump to 'salacious and unverified' allegations about his 2013 trip to Moscow that the media may soon publish.'

That is a reference to the infamous 'Golden Showers dossier,' which referenced unverified allegations about Trump's conduct with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room during the Miss Universe pageant. Comey testified that he told Trump about it because he wanted him to know the information was out there.

Comey completed a memo January 28, 2017 a day after having dinner with Trump. He wrote that Trump said he expected 'loyalty.'

Orchestrating one-on-one with Trump to discuss the dossier

On Valentine's Day, 2017, Comey writes a memo about Trump saying he hopes Comey can 'see [his] way clear ... to letting Flynn go,' at a time when there was an active investigation of Michael Flynn. Comey wrote the memo on his own laptop, put a copy in his home safe, and gives a second signed copy to his FBI chief of staff. In a March 30 Comey memo, Trump asks what he 'could do to lift the cloud' of the Russsia investigation. All the memos featured in the Mueller report.

The 83-page report reconstructs the events surrounding each of the memos and how they were created.

In the case of Comey's January 7 meeting with Trump, he met with senior FBI officials including chief of staff James Rybicki and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. They wanted the meeting to be one-on-one so Comey could present 'salacious' information in the 'most discreet' way, according to the IG.

The two men told investigators they also did not want Trump to consider the conversation an effort to hold information over him in a 'Hoover-esque type of plot.'

'Witnesses interviewed by the OIG also said that they discussed Trump's potential responses to being told about the 'salacious' information, including that Trump might make statements about, or provide information of value to, the pending Russian interference investigation.'

They decided that Comey should memorialize the memo immediately after it ended, which he did – in his car.

High-speed memo drafting in a car

'Comey told the OIG he began writing Memo 1 immediately following his meeting with Trump on January 6, 2017. Comey said he had a secure FBI laptop waiting for him in his FBI vehicle and that when he got into the vehicle, he was handed the laptop and 'began typing [Memo 1] as the vehicle moved.' He said he continued working on Memo 1 until he arrived at the FBI's New York field office, where Comey gave a 'quick download' of his conversation with President-elect Trump to Rybicki, McCabe, Baker, and supervisors of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigative team via secure video teleconference (SVTC),' according to the report.

When he wrote his second memo on his personal laptop, made two printouts, then deleted the electronic file.

Comey told investigators he is 'a maniac ... about hacking of [his] personal devices' and is 'obsessive' about deleting files from personal accounts. He said he has 'maniacal hygiene' about records.

Asked why he hadn't used an FBI computer, Comey said h 'wasn't thinking about it ... [belonging to the] Government – [he] thought ... this is for me.'

'Comey told us that he put one original in his personal safe at home, where he stored personal, family-related 'things that mean the most' to him,' according to the report. 'Comey acknowledged that '[i]n theory' his wife also had access to this safe, but told us that at the time, she did not have a key and did not know where he kept his key.'

FBI witnesses told investigators that when he fired Comey, Trump 'directed that Comey not be allowed back into FBI Headquarters.'

Stored in a home safe

Comey still had four memos inside his home safe. He said he didn't seek permission to retain them because he did not consider them to be FBI records. He told the IG he viewed them 'as personal documents, like his will or his passport.'

Trump ally Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted: 'I appreciate the time and effort Mr. Horowitz and his team spent documenting the off-the-rails behavior of Mr. Comey regarding the leaking of law enforcement materials to the media.'

'This is the first of what I expect will be several more ugly and damning rebukes of senior DOJ and FBI officials regarding their actions and biases toward the Trump campaign of 2016,' wrote Graham, who is conducting his own probe of FBI conduct during the Russia probe.

He called the report 'a stunning and unprecedented rebuke of a former Director of the FBI.'

The IG also recounts efforts by Comey's top circle of senior aides to preserve the memos after his abrupt firing.

Comey chief of staff Rybicki had not realized anyone had a copy other than himself, though FBI lawyer Lisa Page contacted him seeking a 'full set' on May 10, 2017 on behalf of then deputy director Andrew McCabe, days after the Comey firing. Rybicki made three sets of copies.

Former FBI official Peter Strzok (who was having an affair with Page and who was removed from the Mueller probe) participated in scanning the memos and making sure they were in a secure system 'so there's a record there.'

He told investigators he thought he did so 'a night or two' after the Comey firing.

McCabe described efforts to ensure 'the FBI took steps to ensure that the Memos 'were preserved in FBI systems as FBI records.'

The Times published its report on the Trump-Comey meeting where Trump sought 'loyalty' on May 11, 2017.

Comey would later share four memos with one of his lawyers, former federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

Who is Inspector General Michael Horowitz? The author of the report that blasted former FBI Director James Comey for violating government rules and untangled the long saga of his memos is the Justice Department's independent IG, Michael Horowitz. Horowitz has received plaudits from Republicans and Democrats for his work in a post he has held since 2012. The IG has its own investigative staff an operates outside of the normal chain of command at the Justice Department. IG Michael Horowitz He issued a report on the Clinton email scandal that concluded the probe was not founded on bias. But he also found in that case Comey 'usurped the authority of the Attorney General' when he announced a decision not to charge Clinton and chided her for careless behavior. He also found text messages between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page 'created the appearance' of bias. Another probe under Horowitz concluded there was no 'discernible patterns' of bias in missing texts from Strzok and Page – an incident that had raised suspicions of Republicans. Horowitz also yielded to repeated demands by House Republicans that they gain access to information he uncovered in his probe of FBI lovers Peter Strozk and Lisa Page. Those emails became fodder for GOP investigators who claimed they were driven by bias and hatred of Trump and were ultimately made public. In part due to the Harvard Law-trained Horowitz's reputation, Democrats are concerned that his ongoing probe of allegations of FBI bias during the Russia probe could damage their own investigative efforts if he reaches damning conclusions. Advertisement

White House blasts in official statement

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham unloaded on Comey in an official statement.

'James Comey is a proven liar and leaker. The Inspector General's report shows Comey violated the most basic obligations of confidentiality that he owed to the United States Government and to the American people, 'in order to achieve a personally desired outcome,'' she said.

'Because Comey shamefully leaked information to the press—in blatant violation of FBI policies—the Nation was forced to endure the baseless politically motivated, two-year witch hunt. Comey disgraced himself and his office to further a personal political agenda, and this report further confirms that fact.'

Former Justice Deparment official Matthew Miller faulted the IG for failing to put Comey's actions in perspective.

'The IG has basically faulted Comey for speeding on his way to tell the village that a fire was coming,' Miller tweeted. 'Such a narrowly-scoped view of the world.'