The White House declassified documents on August 5, 2026, revealing that the FBI opened a secret criminal investigation into President Trump in May 2017, codenamed Oxferd Comma, based on allegations that he may have been acting as a Russian asset when he fired FBI Director James B. Comey. The investigation, marked as a “sensitive investigative matter,” was launched just days after Comey’s dismissal on May 9, 2017, according to the declassified memos released by the White House Government Transparency Task Force.
An internal FBI memo dated May 16, 2017, stated the bureau was “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.” The investigation sought to determine whether Trump was “directed by, controlled by, and/or coordinated activities with, the Russian Federation” in ways that constituted a national security threat or violation of federal law.
A White House official stated that the predicate for the investigation—that Trump might be a Russian asset—was not backed by evidence. “Almost everything in the FBI’s possession at that point had debunked or ruled out that Trump or his campaign was colluding with Russia at that time,” the official said, according to CBS News. The official added, “I was unaware that the predicate for the obstruction included a claim that Donald Trump was somehow acting on behalf of Vladimir Putin.”
The investigation was approved by then-FBI General Counsel James Baker and then-Assistant Director for Counterintelligence William Priestap. Both Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were informed of the probe’s launch, the declassified documents show. Oxferd Comma was eventually rolled into Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s larger investigation into Trump and Russia, which was appointed by Rosenstein after Comey’s firing.
When Mueller concluded his investigation in March 2019, he found no evidence that members of the Trump campaign “conspired or coordinated” with Russia during the 2016 election. The Oxferd Comma investigation was closed on April 9, 2019, a few weeks after Mueller’s final report was delivered. Special Counsel John Durham’s subsequent investigation, released by the Biden Justice Department in 2023, went further: it concluded there was no basis for the FBI to have opened the original Crossfire Hurricane investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion in the first place.
The White House’s declassification comes as federal prosecutors in Fort Pierce, Florida, reportedly investigate whether the FBI, Department of Justice, and intelligence agencies engaged in an ongoing conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Trump and his supporters through repeated criminal investigations lacking evidence of wrongdoing. The release of the Oxferd Comma memos revives one of the most consequential episodes in the Trump-Comey saga, which has continued to unfold in recent years. In 2025, Comey was charged with making false statements and obstruction related to his handling of a 2020 matter. Earlier in 2026, he was indicted on charges related to photos of seashells arranged to form numbers, allegations he has characterized as selective prosecution.
Sources
- The White House — declassified FBI memos on the Oxferd Comma investigation, May 16, 2017 opening electronic communication, approval by Baker and Priestap, closing memo from April 9, 2019, and supporting documents
- CBS News — White House official statement that the Russian asset theory was not backed by evidence, description of Oxferd Comma as a subcomponent of Crossfire Hurricane, details on Mueller’s findings and appointment
- Axios — confirmation of the investigation’s opening in May 2017, closure in April 2019 after Mueller’s conclusion, and the significance of the declassification in reviving the Trump-Comey saga
- NPR — Mueller’s finding that Trump’s campaign did not conspire with Russia, March 2019
- CBS News — Comey’s 2025 indictment on false statements and obstruction charges, and 2026 indictment on seashell photo charges
