The White House has released declassified details of a covert FBI investigation, codenamed "Oxferd Comma", that probed whether President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey at Russia's direction, even as the bureau's own evidence was already pointing the other way.
An administration official disclosed Wednesday that the investigation, opened after Trump dismissed Comey in May 2017, operated as a subcomponent of the broader Crossfire Hurricane probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. FBI agents marked the case "sensitive" and described it internally as "the least intrusive method to address a serious national security risk." The premise: that the President of the United States might be acting on behalf of Vladimir Putin.
The declassified material tells a different story. By the time agents launched Oxferd Comma, the administration official said, "almost everything in the FBI's possession at that point had debunked or ruled out that Trump or his campaign was colluding with Russia." The case was eventually folded into Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, and found to have no merit when that probe closed.
The official who briefed reporters on the declassified material expressed surprise at what the records showed. CBS News reported the official's reaction:
"I was unaware that the predicate for the obstruction included a claim that Donald Trump was somehow acting on behalf of Vladimir Putin."
The predicate for Oxferd Comma was straightforward: Trump's decision to fire Comey. The White House had initially cited Comey's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails as the reason for the dismissal. Mueller's report later claimed Trump was frustrated with Comey for refusing to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation for potential ties to Russia.
But the administration official said the theory that Trump was acting as a Russian asset was not backed up by evidence. That assessment aligns with Mueller's own conclusions. The special counsel did not find evidence that members of the Trump campaign "conspired or coordinated" with Russia, though he described "some contacts between the campaign and Russian government-linked individuals."
The sequence of events matters. Trump fired Comey in May 2017. Then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel shortly afterward to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and any potential ties to the Trump campaign. The FBI's Oxferd Comma case was rolled into Mueller's larger probe, where it remained until the investigation closed with no finding of merit on the question of whether Trump had acted at Russia's behest.
Trump has long accused the FBI and intelligence agencies of conducting unethical investigations into his campaigns and presidency. He has vowed to launch probes of his own into what he considers institutional misconduct. The declassified Oxferd Comma material gives that argument fresh documentary support: a secret investigation premised on a claim the bureau's own files were already contradicting.
The former FBI director's trajectory since his 2017 firing has taken sharp turns. Comey, who has called Trump "morally unfit" to be president, now faces criminal charges of his own. Earlier this year, he was charged with threatening Trump's life after posting photos of seashells arranged to form the numbers "86 47." Comey has alleged he is being vindictively and selectively prosecuted. The Justice Department has denied that allegation.
A separate indictment last year charged Comey with making false statements to Congress. That case was dismissed, though the basis for the dismissal was not specified in the declassified material.
Trump has called Comey a "dirty cop." Comey has maintained his actions were proper. The two men's conflict has defined one of the most consequential institutional standoffs of the past decade, and the Oxferd Comma disclosure adds another chapter.
Several questions remain. The White House has not disclosed the full set of documents included in the release. The administration official who described the material was not identified by name. And the precise scope of Oxferd Comma, whether it was the only subcomponent of Crossfire Hurricane or one of several, was not addressed.
The current status of Comey's threat charge, including his motion to dismiss, also remains unresolved in public reporting. The court handling the case was not identified in the declassified material.
When a law enforcement agency opens a secret investigation into a sitting president based on a theory its own files had already weakened, the public deserves to know, and to ask who approved it, and why.
