The FBI opened an investigation in 2017 into whether President Trump was “wittingly or unwittingly” a Russian intelligence asset, according to documents declassified by the White House.
The documents include a May 16, 2017, filing, which cited the FBI’s prior Crossfire Hurricane probe into Russian election meddling, as well as the firing that month of FBI Director James Comey.
The investigation sought in part to probe whether “President Trump and others yet to be named obstructed and/or conspired to obstruct any associated FBI investigation,” noting that the president’s rationale for firing Comey had “changed over time.”
The president initially cited Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal, though Trump later claimed he axed the FBI director because “this Russia thing” was a “made up story.”
In a note posted on the White House website on Wednesday, John Solomon, chairman of the White House Government Transparency Task Force, criticized the investigation as part of a chain of events that clouded the first Trump term.
“It prompted the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller...and a nearly two-year probe that hampered the start of the Trump presidency even though Mueller’s team, like the FBI before it, was unable to substantiate any collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election,” Solomon wrote.
The FBI joined in the criticism of the past investigations.
“The weaponization that occurred against President Trump under prior regimes was inexcusable and wholly un-American,” Ben Williamson, assistant director of the FBI Office of Public Affairs, said in a statement to The Independent. “Assistant Director Patel himself was the lead investigator who originally exposed the disgraceful Crossfire Hurricane scandal - and as Director, he has released over 40,000 pages of documents to the public exposing similar malfeasance from former FBI leadership - a threefold increase from both his predecessors combined.”
The FBI investigation, given the unusual name Oxferd Comma, was closed in early 2019, shortly after the conclusion of the Mueller investigation, which found that Russia-linked individuals contacted the Trump campaign but that the campaign had not "conspired or coordinated" with them.
Special counsel John Durham later investigated the origins of Crossfire Hurricane. In a 2023 report, he criticized the FBI for a “lack of analytical rigor” as it probed Trump’s potential Russia ties, but he did not conclude “wholesale changes” were needed at the FBI.
The Trump administration continues to criticize and scrutinize Comey, a prominent critic of the president.
The Justice Department has accused Comey of threatening to kill President Trump for posting a photo of seashells arranged to show the numbers "86 47" in May 2025. (To “86” is a slang term to remove, while Trump is the 47th president.)
Comey later apologized for the post and said he was unaware it could have violent connotations.
Lawyers for the former FBI director have accused the White House of pursuing a “vindictive and selective prosecution.”
Comey is seeking to get the case dismissed.