The newly released “Oxferd Comma” files show the FBI opened a full investigation into President Donald Trump days after James Comey’s dismissal, even as agents had already expressed serious doubts about allegations of coordination between Trump’s campaign and Moscow.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Newly declassified FBI records show the bureau opened a full counterintelligence and criminal investigation into President Donald Trump in May 2017 to determine whether he fired Director James Comey while acting under the direction or influence of the Russian government.
The investigation, code-named “Oxferd Comma,” began May 16, 2017, exactly one week after Comey’s dismissal. The files were identified and declassified by the White House Government Transparency Task Force and reveal that the FBI formally examined whether the newly inaugurated president was, knowingly or unknowingly, functioning as a Russian asset.
The decision came despite evidence accumulated during the earlier Crossfire Hurricane investigation that had failed to substantiate collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and the Kremlin, according to a Just the News report.
“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 behalf 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 FBI’s electronic communication opening the case stated.
The bureau said the inquiry would examine both possible Russian control over Trump and potential obstruction connected to federal investigations.
“The goal of the investigation is 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 document stated. “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.”
The opening memorandum was produced by the FBI’s counterintelligence division and approved by then-General Counsel James Baker and then-Assistant Director for Counterintelligence William Priestap.
Trump’s public explanations for removing Comey were cited as part of the bureau’s rationale for examining whether the dismissal was connected to the Russia investigation.
“This alternative explanation can be reasonably read to imply that the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation was a factor in President Trump’s decision to terminate Comey,” the memo stated.
Then-Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were informed that Oxferd Comma had been opened, the records show.
The FBI classified the case as a “sensitive investigative matter” and described it as “the least intrusive method to address the serious national security risk posed by the activities alleged.”
The investigation nevertheless became part of the events surrounding Rosenstein’s appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel. Mueller’s inquiry continued for nearly two years, placing sustained pressure on the opening period of Trump’s presidency while examining Russian interference, possible campaign coordination and potential obstruction.
The Mueller investigation did not establish that Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia during the 2016 election and resulted in no criminal charges against Trump.
Special Counsel John Durham later reviewed the origins and conduct of the FBI’s Russia investigation. His final report, released by the Biden Justice Department in 2023, concluded that the FBI lacked a sufficient basis to open Crossfire Hurricane as a full investigation.
The newly declassified records show Oxferd Comma remained active until April 9, 2019, several weeks after Mueller completed his investigation and submitted his findings without charging Trump.
“The Special Counsel provided the Attorney General with a confidential report explaining his prosecution and declination decisions,” the FBI’s closing communication stated.
The documents were released as federal prosecutors in Fort Pierce, Florida, reportedly investigate whether officials within the FBI, Justice Department and intelligence agencies participated in a continuing conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Trump and his supporters through repeated criminal investigations that lacked evidence of wrongdoing.
It was previously known that the FBI examined whether Comey’s firing constituted obstruction and that those concerns helped lead to Mueller’s appointment. The newly declassified files disclose that the bureau also explicitly investigated whether Trump’s conduct was directed or influenced by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Records later showed Comey was recommended for dismissal because Justice Department leadership believed he had mishandled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
The Justice Department’s independent inspector general subsequently concluded in a review of Comey’s conduct that the former director “violated long-standing department practice and protocol” in his handling of the Clinton case.
The foundation of Oxferd Comma stood in contrast to doubts voiced by agents involved in Crossfire Hurricane. Records show investigators had spent months examining allegations involving Trump campaign officials without establishing coordination with the Kremlin.
Peter Strzok, then a deputy assistant director and lead figure in Crossfire Hurricane, expressed reservations three days after Oxferd Comma was opened.
“I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there,” Strzok wrote FBI attorney Lisa Page on May 19, 2017, according to their released text messages.
FBI Special Agent William Barnett, another investigator assigned to the Russia case, later told the Justice Department that the bureau had largely ruled out collusion involving the Trump campaign by early 2017.
“BARNETT still did not see any evidence of collusion between the TRUMP Campaign and the Russian Government,” an FBI interview summary stated.
Barnett said investigators had found no evidence establishing that retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn or campaign advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos had conspired with Russian officials.
By the time the FBI opened Oxferd Comma, the bureau had also learned that significant allegations of Trump-Russia coordination had been promoted through a dossier commissioned by a law firm representing Clinton’s campaign.
The dossier was compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. FBI reviews later found that much of its content was unverified, false, based on rumors or unsupported by available evidence.
Warnings concerning the political origins of the Russia allegations had emerged months earlier. U.S. intelligence obtained information in July 2016 indicating that Clinton had allegedly approved a proposal from one of her advisers to portray Trump as collaborating with Russian intelligence.
Then-CIA Director John Brennan personally briefed President Barack Obama concerning the intelligence.
“We’re getting additional insight into Russian activities from [REDACTED],” Brennan’s notes from the briefing stated. “CITE [summarizing] alleged approved by Hillary Clinton a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.”
The intelligence characterized the alleged plan as an effort to “smear” Trump. Brennan shared the information at an Aug. 3, 2016, White House meeting with Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Comey and other senior officials.
The meeting took place four days after the FBI opened Crossfire Hurricane.
“On August 3, 2016, during a meeting at the White House, CIA Director Brennan briefed President Obama, Vice President Biden, DNI Clapper, FBI Director Comey, and other U.S. officials regarding Russian interference efforts as well as the T1 intelligence received concerning the referenced plan by the Clinton campaign,” a declassified annex to the Durham report stated.
By early 2017, FBI analysts had examined the assertions contained in the Steele dossier and documented their findings in an internal spreadsheet.
The review concluded that some allegations were demonstrably false, while many others could not be verified or appeared to be based on rumors circulating online.
Several of Steele’s sources and subsources later distanced themselves from his representations of what they had told him.
The FBI also knew that Steele’s principal subsource, Igor Danchenko, had previously been suspected of having ties to Russian intelligence, according to a September 2020 letter from the attorney general to Sen. Lindsey Graham.
During FBI interviews in February 2017, Danchenko said some information attributed to him in the Steele dossier was merely hearsay, according to interview memoranda released in 2020.
The bureau had also determined by early January 2017 that its investigation of Flynn had produced no adverse findings.
“No derogatory information was reported back to the FBI,” a Jan. 4, 2017, memorandum closing the original Flynn investigation stated.
Despite that determination, FBI agents later interviewed Flynn and accused him of making false statements during the encounter.
Priestap recorded concerns about the objective of the interview in handwritten FBI notes.
“What’s our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” Priestap wrote.
Barnett later described the broader Russia inquiry as a misguided effort to “get Trump” and said agents joked that its investigative reasoning resembled an improvised version of the board game Clue.
“BARNETT and others joked about how the investigation into collusion could be made into a game, which they referred to as ‘Collusion Clue,’” the interview summary stated. “In the hypothetical game, investigators are able to choose any character conducting any activity, in any location, and pair this individual with another character and interpret it as evidence of collusion.”
The Oxferd Comma documents establish that the FBI proceeded with an extraordinary investigation of a sitting president despite internal skepticism, unresolved questions about the political origins of the allegations and the bureau’s failure to verify central claims used to support the wider Trump-Russia inquiry.
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