The White House on Wednesday declassified information on James Comey’s secret May 2017 FBI investigation into President Trump.
In 2019, fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe admitted he opened a counterintelligence investigation into President Trump in May 2017 shortly after Trump fired Comey as FBI Director.
McCabe was investigating whether Trump was ‘acting as an agent of Russia.’
McCabe also opened a criminal investigation into Trump for possible obstruction of justice for firing Comey.
“I was speaking to the man who had just run for the presidency, and won the election for the presidency, and who might have done so with the aid of the government of Russia, our most formidable adversary on the world stage and that was something that troubled me greatly,” McCabe said in a 60 Minutes interview in February 2019.
Comey previously told lawmakers in a closed-door deposition in December 2018 that Andrew McCabe and then-DAG Rod Rosenstein (who plotted to wear a wire and oust Trump via the 25th Amendment) opened up an obstruction of justice inquiry into Trump after the President fired Comey, however, news of the counter-intel investigation was not previously known to the public until the New York Times reported the story in January 2019.
McCabe confirmed the explosive New York Times report on Rosenstein’s plans to wear a wire during his “60 Minutes” interview.
Comey’s firing ultimately led to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel by Rod Rosenstein.
On Wednesday, the newly-declassified memos revealed the FBI’s investigation was codenamed “Oxferd Comma.”
“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 electronic communication opening the probe on May 16, 2017 stated.
“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 memos said.
“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 documents said.
Oxferd Comma was closed on April 9, 2019 shortly after Mueller concluded his final report.
After a two-year witch hunt, Robert Mueller concluded in his final report that President Trump did not collude with the Kremlin in 2016.
In a separate investigation, Special Counsel John Durham concluded there was no basis for the FBI to open the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
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