Comey's indictment centers on truth of authorizing his friend & advisor to leak to media: Sources

Fired FBI Director James Comey has been indicted for purportedly lying to Congress when he denied authorizing FBI leaks to the media. In fact, multiple sources told Just the News that Comey authorized his personal advisor and friend Daniel Richman to leak to the press. 

Richman, a former DOJ official and current Professor of Law at Columbia University Law School, was a Special Government Employee (SGE) at the FBI during the 2016 election, and it is already public knowledge that Richman later assisted Comey with leaking the so-called “Comey Memos” to the New York Times in 2017 after Comey's firing by President Donald Trump. Motivating the leak was Comey's desire to prompt the appointment of a special counsel to carry on the bureau’s Trump-Russia investigation, which proved to be baseless. Comey has described Richman as a “friend” to investigators, and Richman also went on to be Comey’s personal attorney.

The indictment against Comey came two weeks after Richman was subpoenaed as part of a criminal probe, according to ABC News.

Elements of the indictment and unnamed "persons"

The indictment sought by the Trump Justice Department and approved by a grand jury last week stems from allegations that Comey misled the Senate during his testimony in late September 2020, when he reiterated his May 2017 denial that he had ever authorized an FBI leak of information to the media about the Trump-Russia investigation or Clinton-related investigations. The indictment also alleged that Comey had obstructed Congress by lying to the Senate. 

“On or about September 30, 2020, in the Eastern District of Virginia, the defendant, JAMES B. COMEY JR., did willfully and knowingly make a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch of the Government of the United Stales, by falsely stating to a U.S. Senator during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that he, JAMES B. COMEY JR., had not ‘authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports’ regarding an FBI investigation concerning PERSON 1,” the indictment states.

Sources familiar with the matter confirmed that “Person 1” is Hillary Clinton. The sources declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of the investigation.

The indictment goes on to say that Comey’s leak authorization denial “was false, because, as JAMES B. COMEY JR. then and there knew, he in fact had authorized PERSON 3 to serve as an anonymous source in news reports regarding an FBI investigation concerning PERSON 1.”

The allegation that “Person 3” is Richman comes after multiple news articles had apparently suggested that the person in question whom Comey had allegedly authorized to leak had been former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. The sources familiar with the matter stated that “Person 3” is Richman.

Richman was a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1987 to 1992, according to his official biography, and Richman says he was initially selected by then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani to be a federal prosecutor.

Richman went on to be a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and at the Fordham University School of Law, and he has been the Paul J. Kellner Professor of Law at the Columbia University School of Law since 2009. 

“Richman has served as an adviser to former FBI Director James B. Comey and as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice and Department of the Treasury,” Richman’s law school biography currently states. 

At Comey’s direction, records show Richman was made an SGE in 2015 through early 2017, where he allegedly spoke with the press to help shape news stories in Comey’s favor, although Richman has said Comey never asked him to talk to the press. Since Comey's departure from the bureau, Richman has repeatedly criticized Trump and the Trump-led DOJ, including through podcast appearances and articles through the Lawfare website run by another Comey friend.

Comey did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Just the News sent to him through his lawyer, and Richman did not respond to a request sent to him through his personal law school email address.

Richman, media leaks, and The New York Times

The FBI concluded that numerous legacy news media stories that helped push the false Russia collusion narrative contained illegally leaked classified intelligence but failed to definitively identify the leakers. Nonetheless, agents obtained a stunning admission that Comey used a special conduit to the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times in his bid to polish his image and push for a special prosecutor to take down Trump.

Richman admitted to agents in interviews he routinely communicated on behalf of Comey, his longtime friend, with Times reporter Michael Schmidt, whose work was among the newspaper's 2018 Pulitzer-winning stories on Russian election interference. The goal, Richman told the FBI, was "to correct stories critical of Comey, the FBI and to shape future press coverage" outside the bureau's official press office, according to internal FBI memos.

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 Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information level and sometimes provided information to reporters on an anonymous basis, according to bureau memos.

"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 recounted.

In the end, the Justice Department decided not to pursue any criminal charges against Comey or any of his lieutenants at the time despite potential evidence of leaks, saying it could not be certain of who leaked what and when.

Investigation code-named "Arctic Haze" looked at four articles

The interrogation of Richman and his admissions of significant contact with Schmidt provide the most detailed account to date of how Trump critics like Comey — who was fired by the president — used the media to craft narratives that ultimately turned out to be untrue or misleadingly overstated, the memos show.

The FBI leak investigation code-named “Arctic Haze” revealed key details about Richman — Comey’s longtime friend, confidante, and media conduit — including what was at that time his nearly decade-long source relationship with Schmidt of the Times.

The leak investigation zeroed in on four news articles which contained leaked classified information.

The first was a Times article by four reporters — Schmidt, Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, and Eric Lichtblau, from late April 2017 titled “Comey Tried to Shield the F.B.I. from Politics. Then He Shaped an Election.” The second was a Washington Post story by Ellen Nakashima from early April 2017 titled “New details emerge about 2014 Russian hack of the State Department: It was ‘hand to hand combat’.”

The third was another Post piece by Karoun Demirjian and Devlin Barrett from late May 2017 titled, “How a Dubious Russian Document Influenced the FBI’s Handling of the Clinton Probe.” The fourth was a Wall Street Journal article by Holman Jenkins Jr. from late May 2017 titled, “The Trump-Russia Story Starts Making Sense.”

The April 2017 Times article by Schmidt quoted Richman defending Comey: “Jim sees his role as apolitical and independent. The FBI director, even as he reports to the attorney general, often has to stand apart from his boss.”

Richman defends Comey

Schmidt wrote that “confidants like Mr. Richman say he was constrained by circumstance” while “navigating waters in which every move has political consequences.” Richman also reportedly said that Comey displayed “a consistent pattern of someone trying to act with independence and integrity, but within established channels” and that “his approach to the Russia investigation fits this pattern.”

The Times article editorialized that, in the case of the Trump-Russia investigation, Comey “conducted the investigation by the book.” The poor quality of that investigation was criticized by DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz, special counsel John Durham, and others.

The FBI memos, released by current FBI Director Kash Patel earlier this year, show that Arctic Haze was opened by the FBI’s Washington Field Office as a media leak investigation in mid-August 2017, after a redacted source in late June 2017 “reported the unauthorized disclosure of classified information in eight articles published between April and June 2017” and after a DOJ request at the start of August 2017.

The FBI closed the investigation in early September 2021 with the DOJ charging no one with leaking classified material. The bureau’s closure document provided details about the FBI’s failed attempt to catch the leakers. The bureau document indicated that it had been treated as an “Espionage Investigation.”

The FBI said the “factual predication” for the leak inquiry was largely based on the classified information which first appeared in the April 2017 Times piece.

Comey hires Richman as government employee, granted Top Secret clearance

The FBI said that “Comey instructed the FBI to hire Richman as a Special Government Employee” 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.”

Horowitz wrote in August 2019 Comey told investigators “that Richman was a close friend of his who had been ‘on-site at the FBI a lot’ because Richman worked as a Special Government Employee until February 2017.”

The DOJ watchdog wrote that Richman resigned as an SGE in February 2017, but that his security clearance remained active until he was debriefed and “read out” by the FBI in mid-July 2017. 

“The investigation revealed Richman had been a source for Michael Schmidt, one of the reporters credited with writing the article at issue, and the New York Times since at least 2008,” the bureau’s investigative records show. “Richman first spoke with Schmidt regarding an investigation into illegal activity in sports. Prior to Richman becoming an SGE, Schmidt visited Richman’s house numerous times. The New York Times quoted Richman several times, both on the record and on background, in stories regarding Jim Comey. After he was terminated by President Trump, Comey used Richman as a conduit to convey to the media memoranda of his meetings with President Trump."

“According to Richman, Comey and Richman talked about the ‘hammering’ Comey was taking from the media concerning his handling of the Midyear Exam investigation. Richman opined Comey took comfort in the fact Richman had talked to the press about his feelings regarding Comey’s handling and decision-making on the Midyear Exam investigation,” the FBI memos say. The notes go on to say that "although Richman claimed Comey never asked him to talk to the media," but material following that statement were redacted.

The FBI memos stated that “Richman recalled Comey told him there was some weird classified material related to Lynch which came to the FBI’s attention” and that “Comey told Richman about the Classified Information, including the source of the information.”

The FBI said that “investigators learned that FBI's Office of Public Affairs was told to assist The New York Times with the April 2017 article” and that “Comey either directed or otherwise authorized FBI’s official assistance to The New York Times.”

Disgraced and fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was having an affair, appear to have been involved in briefing The Times, according to the bureau memos.

“Strzok stated he believed FBI Executive Management told them to meet with the New York Times. Strzok said he recalled being told to provide an investigator-level briefing on the Midyear Exam investigation,” the FBI said in its memos. “During the March 30, 2017, meeting, the Times told Strzok and Page they had the Classified Information.”

The FBI claimed in 2021 that “the investigation has not yielded sufficient evidence to criminally charge any person, including Comey or Richman, with making false statements or with the substantive offenses under investigation.”

FBI emails provide window into Richman’s activities inside bureau

Internal FBI emails indicate the bureau was looking to bring Richman on board as an SGE as early as January 2015. Richman wrote in one October 2015 FBI email about the “Going Dark” problem and said that “I’m using my sabbatical to help the FBI Director’s office think through these and other issues.” 

The FBI emails indicate Richman’s first term as an SGE ended in 2016 and that he was then reappointed as an SGE for another year as a “consultant” for the FBI’s Office of General Counsel.

Internal FBI emails show that Richman forwarded FBI official Sasha O’Connell a late August 2016 email from Politico writer Riley Roberts, who was doing a “deep dive on FBI Director Comey” which she indicated would be critical of Comey’s handling of the investigation into Clinton’s use of an illicit private email server. Roberts asked Richman if “you might be willing to offer your perspective (or at least some part of it) on the record.”

O’Connell told a redacted official that “Dan wanted to be sure OPA [the Office of Public Affairs] was aware he did this meeting and felt he had some success.” A redacted official at the FBI’s national press office said “I was not aware” of an upcoming Politico story on Comey’s approach to the Clinton investigation.

The Politico article came out in September 2016 and was harshly critical of Comey, but it quoted Richman repeatedly defending his friend.

Internal emails from Richman also indicate multiple instances where he said he planned to meet with Comey in his office. The emails also indicate that Richman was coordinating with Rybicki and Baker on his work at the FBI.

The FBI records show Richman received an early February 2016 email from a Time magazine reporter who was working on a “longer profile” on Comey, with Richman telling redacted recipients that “I’m happy to speak with him and tell him the right stuff (which I believe)” but that Richman wanted the green light from Comey and his deputies first.

Comey’s friend said in one email to an FBI official and an official at “OGA” (meaning Other Government Agency) in early January 2017 that “I’ve gone to [FBI] HQ a number of times in recent months.” An email from Richman to Rybicki said Comey had asked Richman to come to his office on January 3, 2017.

Richman sent an email to FBI officials in early February 2017 saying that “I am resigning my SGE status, and will thus not, as of today, be formally working for the Bureau in the immediate future.” Comey’s friend said that “my SGE status is limiting what I can do in my extracurricular life.”

Comey says Richman helped leak the Comey Memos — prompting Mueller’s appointment

Horowitz wrote a report released in August 2019 criticizing Comey’s decision to leak his so-called “Comey Memos” — including details about Trump’s alleged comments about Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn — to the media in 2017 in an effort by the then-fired FBI director to spur the appointment of a special counsel.

Horowitz wrote that his investigation “interviewed 17 witnesses, including former Director Comey and Daniel Richman, the individual who, at Comey's request, shared the contents of one of the Memos with a reporter [Schmidt] for the New York Times.” Comey told Horowitz that the day after being fired by Trump, he retained Richman as an attorney.

“We have previously faulted Comey for acting unilaterally and inconsistent with Department policy,” the DOJ watchdog wrote. “Comey’s unauthorized disclosure of sensitive law enforcement information about the Flynn investigation merits similar criticism.”

Comey admitted in 2017 that he had hoped leaking this information “might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.” Horowitz concluded Comey’s 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.”

Horowitz sent a criminal referral to the DOJ over Comey’s memos at the time, but the DOJ declined to prosecute.

Comey’s leak efforts were successful, however, as Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel within days of the Comey Memo leaks making their way to the Times.

An article in the Times penned by Schmidt was titled “Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation” and was published on May 16, 2017. Then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel the next day.

After two years, Mueller “did not establish” any criminal Trump-Russia collusion.

Staff from the GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee spoke with Richman in mid-June 2017 in an effort to obtain copies of the memos that Comey had provided Richman to leak to the media. During the interview, Richman reportedly suggested that a lawyer from the FBI General Counsel’s office who had been tasked to Mueller’s investigation had been authorized to communicate on Richman’s behalf.

Richman reportedly said that “I don’t think it’s normal in the slightest” for him to be having a federal prosecutor talking to a congressional committee on his behalf, but “it’s also not normal for a law professor to represent the former director of the FBI.”

The Columbia professor also reportedly told the Senate staff that he was “working with the bureau” and agreed that “we are so far out of the realm of normality.” Richman also reportedly told the staffers something to the effect of “you do things by your rules” and “I do things by my rules.”

Richman repeated authors anti-Trump articles

Richman in recent years — including in January of this year — has written articles for and made podcast appearances for Lawfare, a website founded by Benjamin Wittes that is well-known for its criticisms of Trump and of the Trump Justice Department, including the current case against Comey.

Wittes — described by Politico in 2017 as “The Bard of the Deep State” — is a longtime Trump critic, and a self-described friend of both Comey and Strzok. Wittes and Lawfare recently hired longtime friend of Strzok and former FBI agent Michael Feinberg, who resigned from the bureau earlier this year after he says he was told he would have to submit to a polygraph test about his friendship with Strzok.

Schmidt of the Times wrote multiple stories in May 2017 about Comey’s interactions with Trump — including the contents of the so-called Comey Memos — as Comey sought the appointment of a special counsel after being fired by Trump. Wittes said in 2017 that he was a source for at least one of the stories — which described Wittes as “a friend of Mr. Comey’s” — with Wittes writing that he gave a long interview to Schmidt “about my conversations with FBI Director James Comey over the last few months, and particularly about one such conversation that took place on March 27 over lunch in Comey’s FBI office.” Richman had helped leak the Comey Memos to the Times.

During Trump’s first term, Wittes would celebrate Russiagate stories with videos of a “Baby Cannon” firing. Richman’s articles for Wittes' website included multiple pieces on the criminal cases brought against Trump by the Biden DOJ and then-special counsel Jack Smith.

Comey’s friend wrote of Trump for the outlet in 2022 that “no one should underestimate the difficulty of a trip into the head of someone who has had a troubled relationship with expertise, precedent, and reality.” Richman wrote for the outlet in 2023 about Trump’s need to personally attend a possible trial that “perhaps he will even come to appreciate the harm his actions have caused—though I do not kid myself as to the likelihood of that recognition here.”

Richman also wrote for Lawfare in late January in opposition to Trump’s anti-illegal immigration efforts, stating that “the Trump administration lacks the legal power to coerce state and local authorities to enlist in its deportation campaign — and ignores the history of similar failed efforts.”

In the wake of George Floyd’s death, Richman co-wrote a Washington Post article in the summer of 2020 arguing that “police reform won’t work unless it involves federal and state governments” and that “external accountability is key to achieving change at the local level.”

Richman also wrote a piece for the Financial Times in 2023 about the Biden era prosecution of Trump, praising both Smith and Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis for “each doing their duty and seeking to hold Trump accountable for a grievous attack on American democracy and the constitution.”

The Comey friend also wrote New York Times opinion pieces this year, claiming in February that “the Trump Justice Department’s twisted loyalty game is something new, dangerous, and self-defeating” and writing in July that “Trump appears to have put personal loyalty above all in the leaders he chose for the Justice Department and the FBI.”

Richman also went on comedian and former Democratic Sen. Al Franken’s podcast just last month to discuss “Trump’s Politicization of the DOJ.” During the episode, Richman called FBI Director Kash Patel “manifestly unqualified” and “someone whose only qualification is absolute loyalty” to Trump.

He has made numerous other media appearances in print and online, often as a critic of Trump.

Comey lieutenants and other leaks to the media

Federal prosecutors have also gathered evidence from other top Comey lieutenants that he authorized the leak of classified information to reporters just before the 2016 election but declined to bring criminal charges, according to further recently declassified memos that call into question the former FBI director's testimony to Congress.

The bombshell revelations involving ex-FBI general counsel James Baker and ex-Comey chief of staff James Rybicki were memorialized in documents that Patel discovered earlier this year.

The memos detail evidence and interviews gathered by U.S. Postal Inspection Service agents concerning classified information leaked to the Times in October 2016, ahead of the November election in which Trump defeated Clinton.

"The USPIS [U.S. Postal Inspection Service] Investigation also revealed Baker disclosed USG [U.S. government] classified information to the NYT under the belief he was ultimately instructed and authorized to do so by then FBI Director James Comey," one summary memo reads. "For example, during interviews, Baker indicated FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki instructed him (Baker) to disclose the information to the NYT, and Baker understood Rybicki was conveying this instruction and authorization from Comey."

The memos don't identify the specific pieces of classified information that were leaked or whether Comey or anyone else was authorized to declassify them for the media.  

They were investigated by multiple prosecutors, including the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, D.C., under Trump's first administration and by future-special prosecutor John Durham, and all declined to bring criminal charges, the memos show.

The FBI memos show the Justice Department’s “Tropic Vortex” classified leaks investigation initially focused on an unspecified October 2016 article by the Times as well as an early March 2017 article by the Times written by reporters Schmidt and Michael Shear and titled, “Comey Asks Justice Dept. to Reject Trump’s Wiretapping Claims.” 

According to The Benton Institute for Broadband Society, the "October 2016 NYT Article" in question was a piece published on Halloween that year written by journalists Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers and titled, “Investigating Donald Trump, FBI Sees No Clear Link to Russia.”

The FBI memos said that in late March 2017, then-acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente directed then-Connecticut U.S. Attorney Durham to lead an investigation based on a criminal referral from a redacted source “regarding an unauthorized public disclosure of USG classified information.”

The USPIS Investigation

The memo said that such investigations are typically conducted by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division with oversight from DOJ's National Security Division, but that “at least one of the subjects of the investigation is a former senior FBI official who previously worked in NSD,” and so, “to avoid a potential conflict of interest or an appearance thereof,” Boente assigned the investigation to Durham and the USPIS instead of NSD and the FBI.

The newly-declassified FBI document lifted a redaction that showed that one of the previously-concealed subjects of criminal investigation was “FBI general counsel James Baker.”

The FBI memo said that the “October 2016 NYT Article indicated there were two USG sources for the article.” The newly-lifted redactions show that the USPIS Investigation “revealed Baker to be one of the two sources” and “also revealed Baker disclosed USG classified information to the NYT under the belief he was ultimately instructed and authorized to do so by then FBI Director James Comey.”

The newly-unredacted portion added that “Baker indicated FBI chief of staff James Rybicki instructed him (Baker) to disclose the information to the NYT, and Baker understood Rybicki was conveying this instruction and authorization from Comey.”

The FBI memo said that by late December 2017, Durham and USPIS “completed their investigation and provided a memorandum with their conclusions and recommendations to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.”

An FBI memo for a further media leak investigation is dated mid-January 2019 and indicates that the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division “received a draft memorandum” from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the nation’s capital regarding the aforementioned Durham-led investigation.

The FBI field office issued a memo in late February 2020 indicating that the investigation had ended with the U.S. attorney’s office in the nation’s capital declining to prosecute, but with the memo providing further details about the failed investigation.

The memo said the Durham-led part of the inquiry had been based on a “criminal referral” that had focused on the October 2016 article in the Times. Durham and USPIS “completed their investigation” in mid-December 2018, and the “Durham Memo” sent to then-acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker “recommended NO prosecution of Baker or anyone else,” the newly-declassified portion of the FBI record revealed.

The FBI’s Washington field office then picked up the investigation the next year. The FBI field office “did identify one additional investigative lead” during their inquiry.

The memo cited an early-March 2017 tweet from Trump in which he said: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” 

The memo noted that, the next day, the Times published its aforementioned article on Comey asking the DOJ to reject Trump’s allegation.

“The March 2017 NYT Article reported a USG official indicated Comey asked the DOJ to publicly reject the assertions in President Trump's tweets, but the DOJ had not released any such statement. The tweets and article occurred shortly after the initiation of the USPIS Investigation,” the FBI memo said.

“During interviews for the USPIS Investigation, multiple DOJ and FBI officials were asked about their discussions, actions and responses to the tweets and article. Although the officials provided opinions on the identity of the USG official in the article, the USPIS Investigation did not determine who it was," the memo stated.

The FBI’s Washington field office “compiled findings from the USPIS Investigation regarding the tweets and the March 2017 NYT Article, and from additional investigation by WFO” in late October 2019. A newly-declassified portion of the memo said that “the findings revealed Rybicki forwarded an email containing a proposed statement to the news media regarding the tweets to his (Rybicki’s) presumed personal email account.”

Memo: Leaks "at the implicit direction of Comey"

The recently-declassified part of the memo said that “the proposed statement originated from Comey and appeared to be at the UNCLASSIFIED level of classification” in the March 2017 article and that the FBI field office “assessed Rybicki did so in furtherance of a potentially unauthorized disclosure to the news media, which appeared to be at the implicit direction of Comey.”  

A recently-unredacted part of the FBI memo stated that “based on the findings and assessment,” the U.S. attorney’s office in the nation’s capital “issued a preservation letter for Rybicki’s personal email account in furtherance of potential legal process” but that  federal prosecutors “subsequently declined to pursue additional legal process as the proposed statement appeared to be UNCLASSIFIED.”

The now-unredacted part of the FBI memo said the FBI field office “also prepared materials regarding the proposed statement for use in a November 2019 interview with Rybicki” conducted by the federal prosecutors and the bureau investigators in the nation’s capital, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office “declined to use them” and so the FBI field office “considers this additional investigative lead complete.”

The FBI memos stated that in late January 2020 the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. “issued a prosecutorial declination decision for TROPIC VORTEX.”

It remains to be seen what role Strzok, Page, Rybicki, Baker or other former FBI officials may play in the possible trial against Comey — but Richman may be a key witness, likely one hostile to the prosecution.