The White House has released newly declassified documents revealing how the Federal Bureau of Investigation under President Donald Trump’s first term opened an investigation into whether he was “wittingly or unwittingly” acting as a Russian agent when he fired the bureau’s then-head James Comey in 2017.
The probe, dubbed “Oxferd Comma,” grew out of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation that investigated whether Trump’s campaign had colluded with Russia to secure his election to the presidency in 2016. The memo opening Oxferd Comma, dated May 16, 2017, was approved by then-FBI General Counsel James A. Baker and Bill Priestap, assistant director of the bureau’s counterintelligence division.
The memo stated, “At the direction of the Assistant Director of the FBI’s counterintelligence Division, following consultation with the Office of the General Counsel, the FBI is opening a full investigation based on an articulable factual basis that reasonably indicates that President Donald J Trump may be or has been, wittingly or unwittingly, involved in activities for or on behald of the Government of the Russian Federation which may constitute violations of federal criminal law or threats to the national security of the United States.”
The memo stated that the goal of the investigation was to “determine if President Trump is or was directed by, controlled by, and/or coordinated activities with, the Russian Federation in a manner constituting a threat to the national security of the United States and/or a violation of federal criminal statutes. In addition, this investigation will also seek to determine whether President Trump and others yet to be named obstructed and/or conspired to obstruct any associated FBI investigation.”
The memo said the investigation was predicated on “predetermined criteria set forth by the Crossfire Hurricane investigative team based on the assessment of reliable lead information received during the course of the investigation.”
Among the predicating information laid out by the memo was that a Trump campaign team member indicated in May of 2016 that Russians had made a suggestion to the team that the Russians “could assist the Trump campaign with an anonymous release of information during the campaign damaging the Clinton campaign.” The memo said that Russian intelligence gained access to DNC networks, as well as senior Democratic Party officials and political figures, including Hillary Clinton.
The memo also claimed that Trump team members allegedly steered the GOP platform language on US support for Ukraine away from the idea of giving lethal defensive weapons, with the FBI saying “this platform change would be favorable to Russian interests following their annexation of Crimea.” The memo also stated that Trump “has had long-standing business and real estate ties in Russia and former Soviet states, stemming from the late 1980s.”
The investigation was closed in April of 2019, with no charges being brought against Trump.
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FBI opened probe into whether Trump was Russian agent after he fired James Comey, newly revealed memos show
The FBI opened an investigation into whether President Trump was “wittingly or unwittingly” acting as a Russian agent when he fired then-Director James Comey in 2017, according to bombshell documents released by the White House Wednesday.
The probe, called “Oxferd Comma,” grew out of Crossfire Hurricane, the bureau’s probe into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with the Kremlin to get the 45th president elected.
“Based on the facts and circumstances provided to date, the FBI believes that opening this investigation is the least intrusive method to address the serious national security risk posed by the activities alleged,” one of the declassified bureau memos shows.
The Trump White House initially cited Comey’s handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server as the reason for his dismissal — but it was later revealed the president fired Comey because he wouldn’t publicly state that Trump was not a target of Crossfire Hurricane.
The May 16, 2017, memo opening Oxferd Comma was approved by then-FBI General Counsel James A. Baker and Bill Priestap, assistant director of the bureau’s counterintelligence division.
The probe was meant to “determine if President Trump is or was directed by, controlled by, and/or coordinated activities with, the Russian Federation in a manner constituting a threat to the national security of the United States and/or a violation of federal criminal statutes,” the memo said.
“In addition, this investigation will also seek to determine whether President Trump and others yet to be named obstructed and/or conspiracy to obstruct any associated FBI investigation.”
Trump was not under personal investigation for collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign, but his firing of Comey raised questions about possible obstruction of justice, which triggered an investigation headed by then-special counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director.
Contemporaneous messages indicate that some FBI officials had misgivings about continuing to investigate claims of collusion in the 2016 presidential election after many leads had been exhausted.
“I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there,” wrote then-Deputy Assistant Director Pete Strzok to FBI special counsel Lisa Page in a May 19, 2017, text message.
But the new records could serve as fodder for an investigation by DOJ Counselor to the Attorney General Joe diGenova, according to former Just the News editor in chief John Solomon.
Solomon, who is currently serving in the Trump administration on a task force focused on election integrity, announced the files’ release on X, before querying users: “Should Special U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova treat the opening of Oxferd Comma as an overt act in a criminal conspiracy to violate President Trump’s civil liberties.”
The chairman of the White House Government Transparency Task Force also noted that the FBI probe was opened after bureau agents had cleared former national security adviser Michael Flynn of collusion accusations and debunked a dossier of claims produced by ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele.
Oxferd Comma was closed on April 9, 2019, with no charges against Trump.
Weeks before, the Mueller investigation also found no evidence that Trump or any of his aides coordinated with Russia as part of the 2016 election — but did find the campaign had some contact with individuals with ties to the Kremlin.
Another probe conducted by former special counsel John Durham also concluded that the opening of the FBI investigation into Russian collusion with Trump was “seriously flawed” and had no basis in evidence, a May 2023 report found.
Trump has frequently raged about Crossfire Hurricane and the Mueller probe, calling the investigations a “witch hunt” and using them to claim the government was being weaponized against him. He accused the FBI of targeting him and has often referred to Comey as a “dirty cop.”
Then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, in a May 9, 2017, memo to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions advocated for Comey’s firing based on his violation of long-standing policy for federal investigations by publicly announcing the decision not to charge Clinton with mishandling classified documents while America’s top diplomat.
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