The White House has declassified documents according to which the FBI in 2017 launched an investigation into whether then-President Donald Trump was “knowingly or unknowingly” an agent of Russian intelligence. Among the declassified materials is a document dated May 16, 2017, which refers to a previous FBI investigation called “Crossfire Hurricane” into Russian interference in the elections, as well as the firing of FBI Director James Comey that same month. The investigation, in particular, sought to determine whether “President Trump and other unnamed individuals obstructed and/or conspired to obstruct any related FBI investigation,” noting that the president’s motives for firing Comey “changed over time.”
Initially, President Trump referred to how Comey handled the email scandal involving Hillary Clinton, although later Trump stated that he fired the FBI director because the “Russia thing” was a “made-up story.” John Solomon, head of the White House Working Group on Government Transparency, in a memo published on the White House website on Wednesday, criticized this investigation as part of a chain of events that overshadowed Trump’s first term. According to him, it “triggered the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller… and an almost two-year investigation that hindered the start of Trump’s presidency, although Mueller’s team, like the FBI before it, failed to confirm any conspiracy between Russia and Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election”.
FBI criticized past investigations
Assistant Director of the FBI Office of Public Affairs Ben Williamson in a statement to The Independent noted: “Politically motivated use of the law enforcement system against President Trump under previous regimes was unwarranted and absolutely un-American”. He also added that Assistant Director Patel was the lead investigator who initially exposed the “Crossfire Hurricane” scandal, and as director, he released over 40,000 pages of documents exposing similar abuses by former FBI leadership, three times more than both of his predecessors combined.
The FBI investigation, which was given the unusual name “Oxford Comma,” was closed in early 2019, shortly after the completion of the Mueller investigation. The Mueller investigation found that individuals associated with Russia had contacted Trump’s campaign, but the campaign did not “conspire or coordinate” with them.
Durham report and ongoing scrutiny of Comey
Later, special counsel John Durham investigated the origins of “Crossfire Hurricane.” In a 2023 report, he criticized the FBI for “lack of analytical rigor” during the examination of potential links between Trump and Russia but did not conclude that “drastic changes” were needed in the FBI.
The Trump administration continues to criticize and investigate the actions of Comey, who is a well-known critic of the president. The Department of Justice accused Comey of threatening to kill President Trump for posting a photograph of seashells arranged in the numbers “86 47” in May 2025. “86” is a slang term meaning “remove,” while Trump is the 47th president. Comey later apologized for the post and stated that he did not know it could have violent connotations. Lawyers for the former FBI director accused the White House of “vindictive and selective persecution.” Comey seeks to have the case dismissed.
Source: The Independent
