Story highlights Lawsuit seeks FBI to turn over memos from Comey regarding meetings with Trump

The records are not classified, Comey said last week

Washington (CNN) The FBI on Friday formally denied a CNN Freedom of Information Act request to turn over former director James Comey's memos documenting his conversations with President Donald Trump.

The move comes one day after CNN filed a lawsuit asking the agency to release the documents.

Comey described the meetings and his note-taking in detail last week while testifying before the Senate intelligence committee.

Despite high public interest in the content of the memos, Comey's testimony that the records are not classified and a ruling from the Justice Department that the FBI should expedite CNN's FOIA request for the memos, the FBI has not provided either the documents or a reason to withhold them, according to the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

That constitutes a violation of the federal Freedom of Information Act, the lawsuit alleges. CNN asked the court to require the agency release the documents "unredacted, and without further delay."

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