Eight days of fury: Paper trail exposes FBI bid to probe Trump as Russian asset for firing Comey

The latest declassified documents relating to the FBI’s politically motivated investigations into President Donald Trump revealed that the Bureau secretly investigated Trump for alleged ties to Russia over his firing of then-FBI Director James Comey.

As Just the News’ John Solomon reported Wednesday, the electronic communication opening the probe was sent on May 16, 2017 – a mere week after Trump fired Comey. The FBI knew that the firing had nothing to do with Russia, yet investigated the sitting president anyway.

In an interview on "Just the News, No Noise," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, explained how damaging the investigations were.

"Whenever we do these investigations, the only thing we get wrong is that it's always worse than we thought," Jordan said. "And here's another example where, wow, it was even worse than we thought. No evidence whatsoever, but they do this stuff anyway. Spend taxpayer money, spend resources, going after the guy that we the people made the President of the United States. That's that's how bad this all was."

Below is a timeline of the events before and after the investigation into Trump was opened.

• July 5, 2016: Comey held a press briefing where he announced the FBI completed its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, saying: "Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."
• May 9, 2017: Then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein sent a memo to Attorney General Jeff Sessions recommending Comey be fired. That memo explained that the Department of Justice believed Comey mishandled the investigation into Clinton’s emails and that mishandling would result in the FBI being “unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them.”

At no point in Rosenstein’s memo did he mention Russia.

Following Rosenstein’s recommendation, Trump fired Comey.

• May 10, 2017: The next day, a friend of Comey’s leaked memos Comey had written at the beginning of the year about his alleged interactions with Trump.
• May 11, 2017: The New York Times published the first article referencing Comey’s leaked memos, claiming Trump asked him for a “loyalty” pledge.

That same day, Trump was interviewed by NBC News’ Lester Holt about his decision to fire Comey. A portion of that interview was used as justification to investigate Trump for firing Comey. The FBI claimed that Trump gave changing reasons for firing Comey, including that he had decided to fire Comey before Rosenstein made the recommendation.

• May 12, 2017: Trump tweeted a warning to Comey, saying Comey should “hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations.”
• May 16, 2017: The New York Times published a second piece based on Comey’s memos, this time claiming Trump asked him to end the FBI’s investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

That same day, the FBI sent an electronic communication announcing an investigation into Trump’s firing of Comey and whether it was on behalf of Russia.

“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."

“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,” says the electronic communication, approved by then-FBI General Counsel James Baker and then-Assistant Director for Counterintelligence William Priestap. 

“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 memo added. “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 memo also connected Trump’s firing of Comey to allegations that Trump’s 2016 campaign had colluded with Russia.

The FBI cherry-picked parts of Trump's interview with Holt to justify the investigation, saying Trump’s decision to fire Comey prior to Rosenstein’s recommendation “can be reasonably read to imply that the FBI's counterintelligence investigation was a factor in President Trump's decision to terminate Comey.”

“[Comey’s] the wrong man for that position," Trump says

But the full interview with Holt showed Trump saying he wanted an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, but thought it should have been a quicker investigation.

“In my opinion, it should have been over with a long time ago, because all it is, is an excuse, but, I said to myself I might even lengthen the investigation, but I have to do the right thing for the American people,” Trump said. “[Comey’s] the wrong man for that position.

Trump later said during that interview again that he wanted Russian interference to be investigated, and he wanted an FBI director “who’s going to do a great job.”

The memo also claimed that part of the reason for the FBI investigation into Trump stemmed from a minor change to the RNC platform that was described as a bigger deal by columnist Josh Rogin at The Washington Post. Rogin distorted Trump’s words as implying that the campaign had removed an amendment from the RNC platform that would arm Ukraine against Russia. 

"Comey failed to live up to his responsibility," Inspector General says

The truth, however, is that the RNC rejected a proposal to provide “lethal defensive weapons” to Ukraine, journalist Aaron Mate reported. The platform still included a provision that would increase sanctions on Russia and provide assistance to Ukraine, a proposal that was stronger than the competing DNC platform.

As Mate reported, everything surrounding the RNC platform was known at the time, yet one year after the Republican National Convention, the FBI used Rogin’s framing as an excuse to investigate Trump.

• May 17, 2017: Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to investigate alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia and whether that collusion led to Comey’s firing. The announcement came barely a week after Rosenstein himself penned his letter outlining why Comey should be fired.
• March 7, 2019: Mueller releases his report on Russian interference, finding Trump’s 2016 campaign did not collude with Russia to win the election.
• August 29, 2019: An Office of the Inspector General report determined Comey’s leaking of his memos violated DOJ and FBI policies, including the FBI’s employment agreement. The DOJ declined to prosecute.

"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," Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote in the OIG report.

"Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility," the report said. 

"By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set 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."