Former FBI Director James Comey refused to comment Monday when a reporter asked whether he leaked classified information to prompt the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

"My understanding is that when you shared your memos with your legal team, that there was a follow-up for a classified containment operation by the bureau. Was there a spill of classified information when you shared those memos?" Fox News correspondent Catherine Herridge asked Comey.

"I'm not going to talk about something like that," Comey responded.

"Well that's important to talk about, whether classified information was mishandled," Herridge followed up.

"Whether you think it is or not, I'm not going to talk about it one way or another," Comey said, before taking a question from another reporter.

The exchange came after Comey finished his second closed-door interview with House lawmakers, during which he answered questions about the Russia and Hillary Clinton email investigations.

Last summer, Comey admitted in open testimony that he gave memos detailing his conversations with President Donald Trump as FBI chief to a friend, who then gave them to the New York Times, Townhall noted.

Comey said that he asked his friend, Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman, to share the memos "because [he] thought that it might prompt the appointment of a special counsel." The Times reported that the memos revealed that Trump asked the FBI to drop its investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn while Comey was still director of the agency.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that "at least two of the memos that [Comey] gave to a friend outside of the government contained information that officials now consider classified." The reported continued: