FBI Secretly Investigated Trump as Possible Russian Agent After Comey Firing, Declassified Memos Reveal
Newly declassified documents reveal that the FBI secretly opened an investigation into whether President Donald Trump was acting on behalf of Russia after he fired then-FBI Director James Comey in 2017.
The investigation, code-named “Oxferd Comma,” was launched in May 2017 and examined whether President Trump was knowingly or unknowingly operating as an agent of the Russian government. The existence and details of the probe were disclosed in documents declassified by the White House on Wednesday.
According to the newly released records, investigators sought to determine whether President Trump was being directed or controlled by Russia, or whether he had coordinated activities with Moscow that threatened U.S. national security or violated federal law. The FBI also examined whether Trump or others had attempted to obstruct investigations connected to Russia.
The extraordinary investigation was opened shortly after President Trump dismissed Comey on May 9, 2017. Comey had been overseeing the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation into allegations involving Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Trump’s decision to remove Comey quickly became a major focus of the sprawling Russia investigation.
The documents show the FBI treated the firing as a potential counterintelligence matter rather than simply a dispute between a president and the head of a federal law enforcement agency. Senior FBI officials approved the investigation, including then-FBI General Counsel James Baker and Bill Priestap, who headed the bureau’s counterintelligence division.
The probe eventually became part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Mueller’s investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. The separate FBI investigation into whether Trump was acting as a Russian agent was ultimately closed in April 2019 without charges.
The newly revealed documents add another chapter to the controversy surrounding the FBI’s handling of Trump and the Russia investigation. Special Counsel John Durham’s later investigation sharply criticized aspects of the FBI’s conduct, while a Justice Department inspector general previously identified significant errors and omissions in surveillance applications connected to Crossfire Hurricane.
The disclosure provides new details about just how far the FBI went after Comey’s firing, including secretly investigating a sitting president under the theory that his actions could have been directed by a foreign adversary. Nearly a decade later, the declassified records are bringing renewed scrutiny to the decisions made by senior federal law enforcement officials during one of the most contentious investigations in modern American politics.