Declassified documents reveal the investigation was opened shortly after Comey’s firing, relying on a weeks-old letter and a liberal news article as evidence.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The FBI opened an investigation into then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in May 2017, alleging he may have made false statements to Congress about Russian contacts, even though he had already updated his disputed testimony, according to Just the News, citing declassified documents released by the White House Government Transparency Task Force.
The probe, codenamed MARCH TOLL, was launched just one day after President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. The evidence cited for the investigation included a March 20, 2017, letter from Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Al Franken of Minnesota, both members of the Judiciary Committee, and an article from a liberal news outlet. The senators argued that Sessions had made false statements during his confirmation hearing earlier that year regarding communications with Russian officials.
A Trump administration official noted that the timing of the investigation raises concerns, as it was opened immediately after Comey’s dismissal and more than a month after the Democratic senators sent their letter to the FBI.
The investigation into Sessions was part of a broader pattern of scrutiny into Trump administration officials. Just the News reported last week that the FBI also opened another investigation, codenamed OXFORD COMMA, into Trump the following week, alleging he may have been acting as a Russian asset when he fired Comey.
The FBI’s probe into Sessions for potential false statements had been publicly known since 2018, when Sessions’ lawyer revealed that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team had interviewed the attorney general and decided not to pursue the matter. Mueller’s final report concluded that his office could not prove Sessions was “willfully untruthful.” The investigation into Sessions was later discredited, as Special Counsel John Durham’s 2023 report found no basis for the FBI’s original Crossfire Hurricane investigation into alleged Russia collusion.
In January 2017, Sessions testified to lawmakers that he “did not have communication with the Russians” when asked about potential contacts between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government. Later reports revealed that Sessions had met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least twice during the campaign and while serving as a U.S. senator from Alabama.
Sessions addressed the discrepancy in a March 6, 2017, letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, clarifying that he had met with Kislyak twice but argued his original answer was truthful because Franken’s question pertained to a “continuing exchange of information during the campaign” between Trump campaign agents and the Russian government. “I did not mention communications I had had with the Russian Ambassador over the years because the question did not ask about them,” Sessions wrote.
However, Leahy and Franken remained unsatisfied and wrote to Comey on March 20, 2017, expressing concerns about Sessions’ testimony and accusing him of possible perjury. “We are concerned by Attorney General Sessions’ lack of candor to the Committee and his failure thus far to accept responsibility for testimony that could be construed as perjury,” the senators wrote.
The FBI did not act on the letter until the day after Trump fired Comey, citing the Justice Department’s belief that Comey had mishandled the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The department’s Inspector General later concluded that Comey “violated long-standing department practice and protocol” in his handling of the Clinton case.
The FBI’s opening memo for the Sessions investigation, codenamed MARCH TOLL, shows it was initiated at the FBI’s Washington Field Office under the direction of headquarters, based solely on the March 20 letter from Leahy and Franken. The file also noted that Comey had informed then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on April 28 that the case would be opened.
It wasn’t until May 23 that Sessions’ supplementary testimony was added to the investigative file, in which he argued that his original statements had been truthful. That same day, agents included two open-source articles—one from the Huffington Post and another from The National Interest magazine—as evidence of an alleged third meeting between Sessions and Kislyak. This meeting reportedly took place during an event at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Center for the National Interest, where then-candidate Trump delivered a foreign policy speech.
The Center for the National Interest issued a statement on March 8, 2017, clarifying that they had invited the Russian ambassador and that “the Trump campaign did not determine or approve the invitation list.” The statement added, “We regularly invite ambassadors and other foreign representatives to our events to facilitate dialogue. Ambassador Kislyak was one of four foreign ambassadors who attended the speech that day. We seated all four in the front row during the speech in deference to their diplomatic status. The Trump campaign had nothing to do with the seating arrangement.”
By March 2018, Mueller’s office had decided to close the investigation into Sessions for “potential false statements or perjury.” The FBI officially filed the closure on May 8, 2018, nearly one year after opening the probe. “The Special Counsel’s Office concurs with the request to close the investigation and provided written notification reflecting as such on May 8, 2018,” the closing memo stated.
The declassified documents detailing the FBI’s probes into Trump and his allies come as prosecutors in Fort Pierce, Florida, are reportedly investigating whether government agencies, including the FBI, DOJ, and intelligence agencies, conspired to violate civil rights through criminal investigations lacking solid evidence of wrongdoing. A federal grand jury issued more than 30 subpoenas last November as part of this investigation.
MARCH TOLL – Opening and Predicate – redacted and declassified by FBI 7.30.26 PII.pdf MARCH TOLL – CLOSING – redacted and declassified by FBI 7.30.26.pdf MARCH TOLL – Special Counsel – Closing Email – redacted and declassified by FBI 7.30.26.pdf
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