Trump Declassified the Case Against Himself
The White House released Oxferd Comma — the FBI’s full investigation into whether Trump worked for Russia, “wittingly or unwittingly,” opened one week after he fired James Comey.
Trump’s White House released declassified FBI memos Wednesday morning showing the bureau opened a full investigation into whether President Trump acted on behalf of Russia when he fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, CBS News’s Jennifer Jacobs reported. Agents codenamed the case Oxferd Comma. The declassification stamp reads July 30 — the same day Narativ tracked the Trump-Russia story’s return to the administration’s own agenda (“Trump Russia Returns”). Trump’s staff sat on the file for six days, then put the original question back in print.
Trump fired Comey on May 9, 2017. The next morning he hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office and told them — per a White House document The New York Times reported that month — “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” On May 11 he told NBC’s Lester Holt he had “this Russia thing” in mind when he fired him; the FBI’s opening memo quotes the shifting rationale itself. Six days after Trump told Moscow’s men the pressure was off, agents opened a file on him.
Agents opened Oxferd Comma on May 16, 2017, as a subcomponent of Crossfire Hurricane, on “an articulable factual basis that reasonably indicates” that Trump “may be or has been, wittingly or unwittingly, involved in activities for or on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation.” Agents also alleged, in a clause nobody else is quoting, that “President Trump and others yet to be named obstructed and/or conspired to obstruct any associated FBI investigation.” They marked the case “sensitive,” off the books from other agents.
