NEW YORK (AP) – FBI Director James Comey, already criticized over his handling of Hillary Clinton’s email investigation in the final days of the presidential campaign, was accepting a lifetime achievement award Monday night at a dinner organized by a law enforcement support group whose board includes three people with longtime ties to Donald Trump.
Comey was being honored by the nonprofit Federal Drug Agents Foundation. It lists more than three dozen board directors on its website, and three of its members have extensive ties to Trump. Among them: the CEO of the company that publishes The National Enquirer, the developer of a Trump-branded tower in Toronto and a convicted felon whose company rates Trump businesses for luxury.
An FBI spokesman said the foundation provides disability, bereavement and personal crisis support to federal agents and educational and charitable grants.
Foundation representatives did not immediately respond to phone and email messages from The Associated Press.
The foundation regularly hosts dinners and events honoring law enforcement officials. Past recipients of the lifetime achievement award include Attorney General Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan.