Newly declassified FBI memos reveal how extensively former FBI Director James Comey used his longtime friend Daniel Richman as a secret media conduit to strategically leak classified information to the media in 2016 and 2017 in an alleged effort to take down President Donald Trump.
FBI Director Kash Patel delivered a tranche of the Bureau’s internal memos on leak investigations to Congress earlier this week.
The memos provide details on multiple classified leak investigations involving Comey, including: Arctic Haze, Tropic Vortex, Foggy Falls, Riding Hood, Sirens Lure, Echos Fate, and Genetic Christmas, Just the News reported.
The Department of Justice ultimately decided not to pursue criminal charges against Comey or any potential co-conspirators despite the evidence of leaks, saying it could not positively determine “who leaked what and when,” according to the report.
Richman, a Columbia University law professor, admitted to agents in interviews that he routinely communicated with Times reporter Michael Schmidt on behalf of his pal, Comey. One of Schmitt’s RussiaGate reports was among the newspaper’s 2018 Pulitzer-winning stories on the now-debunked hoax.
According to the documents, “Comey instructed the FBI to hire Richman as a Special Government Employee (SGE)” in 2015 and “to grant him a Top Secret clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information” and that “FBI records indicated Richman was hired to work on ‘Going Dark’ matters.”
The bureau said its investigation “revealed Comey also hired Richman so Comey could discuss sensitive matters, including classified information, with someone outside of the FBI’s regular leadership. Comey also used Richman as a liaison to the media.”
Richman told the FBI that his objective was “to correct stories critical of Comey, the FBI and to shape future press coverage” outside of the bureau’s official press office to the media.
The investigation revealed that Richman had been a source for Schmidt and The New York Times “since at least 2008.”
While Richman was known to have been publicly quoted in news stories as an advocate for Comey, he admitted to agents — who were part of the FBI’s Arctic Haze classified leaks inquiry — that he was given access by Comey to what turned out to be highly classified information up to the SCI level and sometimes provided information to reporters on an anonymous basis.
Richman insisted he did not believe he had confirmed or provided classified intelligence to reporters but said he could not be 100 percent, the memos state, noting he could only make his leak denial “with a discount.”
“Richman was pretty sure he did not confirm the Classified Information. However, Richman told the interviewing agents he was sure ‘with a discount’ that he did not tell Schmidt about the Classified Information,” one FBI memo stated.
The FBI leak investigation code-named “Arctic Haze” examined four news articles—two in the Washington Post, one in the NYT, and one in the Wall Street Journal— which contained leaked classified information.
The Tropic Vortex classified leaks investigation focused on an unspecified October 2016 article in the NYT, as well as an early March 2017 article written by Times reporters Schmidt and Michael Shear and titled, “Comey Asks Justice Dept. to Reject Trump’s Wiretapping Claims.”
The Bureau’s Foggy Falls inquiry focused on a WaPo article by three reporters—Ellen Nakashima, Devlin Barrett, and Adam Entous—from mid-April 2017 titled: “FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor former Trump adviser Carter Page.”
The FBI’s Riding Hood investigation focused on a Buzzfeed News article from early April 2017 written by Ali Watkins and titled, “A Former Trump Adviser Met With A Russian Spy.”
The FBI speculated that the classified information in that article may have informed a mid-April 2017 story by the Washington Post written by three reporters — Ellen Nakashima, Devlin Barrett, and Adam Entous — and titled, “FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor former Trump adviser Carter Page.”
The FBI’s Sirens Lure classified inquiry focused on three WaPo stories:
The first was one by four reporters — Matt Zapotosky, Sari Horwitz, Devlin Barrett, and Adam Entous — from late May 2017 titled, “Jared Kushner Now a Focus in Russia Investigation.” The second was an article by three reporters — Ellen Nakashima, Adam Entous, and Greg Miller — from late May 2017 titled, “Russian Ambassador Told Moscow that Kushner Wanted Secret Communications Channel with Kremlin.” The third was a piece by four reporters — David Filipov, Amy Brittain, Rosalind Helderman, and Tom Hamburger — from early June 2017 titled, “Explanations for Kushner’s Meeting with Head of Kremlin-linked Bank Don’t Match Up.”
The Echos Fate classified leaks investigation examined two Washington Post articles: a January 2017 story by David Ignatius originally titled “Four burning questions on Russia” which was retitled “Why did Obama dawdle on Russia’s hacking?” and a February 2017 story by Greg Miller, Adam Entous, and Ellen Nakashimam titled, “Officials Say Flynn Discussed Sanctions.”
The FBI’s Genetic Christmas classified leaks probe focused on an December 2016 NBC News article written by William Arkin, Ken Dilanian, and Cynthia McFadden, titled: “U.S. Officials: Putin Personally Involved in U.S. Election Hack.”
In August 2019, the inspector general for the Department of Justice released a report on the infamous “Comey memos,” which were leaked to the media after Comey was fired in May, 2017.
The published memos, which included details about a private meeting between Trump and the former director, prompted then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint Robert Mueller as special counsel the next day, roiling the first three years of Trump’s first term in office. After an extensive two year investigation, Mueller and his team of Democrat deputies were unable to “establish” any criminal Trump-Russia collusion.
The disgraced former director testified to congress under oath on May 9, 2017, that the memos were his own personal property, even though he had prepared the records on government computers, on government time, as part of his formal governmental duties.
The OIG determined that the records he leaked were indeed government property and that he violated multiple policies and potentially even federal law in leaking them.
The office found that Comey had “violated applicable policies and his FBI Employment Agreement by providing one of the unclassified memos that contained official FBI information, including sensitive investigative information, to his friend with instructions for the friend to share the contents of the memo with a reporter.”
Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded that the former G-Man had leaked “sensitive” government records and violated DOJ rules, setting “a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees—and the many thousands more former FBI employees—who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information.”
“The responsibility to protect sensitive law enforcement information falls in large part to the employees of the FBI who have access to it through their daily duties,” the OIG report found. “Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility.”
Comey told the OIG that the day after being terminated by Trump, he retained Richman as an attorney.
“We have previously faulted Comey for acting unilaterally and inconsistent with Department policy,” Horowitz wrote. “Comey’s unauthorized disclosure of sensitive law enforcement information about the Flynn investigation merits similar criticism.”
Comey later admitted that he had hoped leaking the information “might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.” Horowitz concluded that the leaks were “an attempt to force the Department to take official investigative actions.”
“Comey had several other lawful options available to him to advocate for the appointment of a special counsel, which he told us was his goal in making the disclosure,” Horowitz wrote. “What was not permitted was the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive investigative information, obtained during the course of FBI employment, in order to achieve a personally desired outcome.”
The findings of the probe were forwarded to the Justice Department, but the department declined prosecution, reportedly because they didn’t think they had enough evidence to prove that Comey intended to violate the law.
According to the Hill, the DOJ did not want to “make its first case against the Russia investigators with such thin margins and look petty and vindictive.”