White House Declassifies FBI Memos Revealing Counterintelligence Probe Into Trump After Comey Firing

The White House Government Transparency Task Force on Wednesday declassified FBI memos showing the bureau opened a criminal counterintelligence probe, codenamed Oxferd Comma, into Trump on May 16, 2017, one week after he fired FBI Director James Comey, as a subcomponent of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane inquiry 12. The opening memo, authored by the FBI counterintelligence division and approved by then-General Counsel James Baker and then-Assistant Director William Priestap, stated the investigation aimed to determine whether Trump "may be or has been, wittingly or unwittingly, involved in activities for or on behalf of" Russia, and whether he obstructed related FBI probes, despite Crossfire Hurricane agents having by then largely dismissed the underlying allegations, including Michael Flynn's January 2017 clearance 13. Acting Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were notified of the probe, which the FBI closed on April 9, 2019 without charges after FBI agent William Barnett found no evidence of Trump campaign-Russia coordination, weeks after Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation concluded 1. The released materials, published by the White House and authored by task force chairman John Solomon, include a May 19, 2017 text from then-Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok stating he doubted "there's no big there there" regarding the underlying allegations 1.