{"id":2793,"date":"2026-08-07T01:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/?p=2793"},"modified":"2026-08-07T01:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:09:13","slug":"secret-fbi-probe-cast-trump-as-possible-russian-asset-after-comey-firing-memos-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/?p=2793","title":{"rendered":"Secret FBI probe cast Trump as possible Russian asset after Comey firing, memos show"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The White House released newly declassified FBI memos showing that the bureau opened a 2017 counterintelligence investigation into whether President Donald Trump\u2019s firing of James Comey was connected to Russia.<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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The investigation, codenamed \u201cOxferd Comma,\u201d opened after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, according to the White House\u2019s release. It is unclear as to why the word \u201cOxford\u201d was seemingly misspelled.<\/p>\n

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The probe was launched due to\u00a0national security concerns\u00a0about whether Trump himself was a Russian asset, the documents allege.<\/p>\n

Investigators sought to determine whether Trump was \u201cdirected 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,\u201d according an FBI memo on May 16, 2017, jump-starting the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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,\u201d the same memo added.<\/p>\n

Comey was appointed by then-President Barack Obama, serving as FBI Director from 2013 to 2017.<\/p>\n

He oversaw the launch of the \u201cCrossfire Hurricane\u201d investigation\u00a0in July 2016 after receiving information that Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos had suggested Russia possessed damaging information about Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n

SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO REVIVE CARTER PAGE LAWSUIT OVER FBI SURVEILLANCE TIED TO TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Former FBI Director James Comey.\u00a0(Dia Dipasupil\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Comey also ran an investigation into Clinton about the use of her private email servers and sent a letter to Congress days before the 2016 election saying the FBI had discovered emails that \u201cappear to be pertinent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump fired Comey after taking office, with the administration initially citing his handling of the Clinton email investigation as reason for losing his job.<\/p>\n

COMEY LEARNS FATE OF BID TO DELAY TRIAL OVER \u201886 47\u2019 SEASHELL POST AT CENTER OF TRUMP THREAT CASE<\/strong><\/p>\n

A week after Comey\u2019s firing, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to take over and broaden the existing FBI \u201cCrossfire Hurricane\u201d investigation.<\/p>\n

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Mueller found in April 2019 that the Russian government sought to influence the election through a social media disinformation campaign and by hacking and releasing Democratic Party emails. His report stated that the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.<\/p>\n

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After Mueller\u2019s probe was set to be finalized, memos on the \u201cOxferd Comma\u201d investigation were closed on April 9, 2019.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, Attorney General William Barr appointed John Durham to review how the FBI had initiated the Russia investigation, which in 2023 concluded that the Bureau lacked sufficient factual basis to open the full Crossfire Hurricane investigation and exhibited bias by departing from its usual standards.<\/p>\n

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Comey was appointed by then-President Barack Obama, serving as FBI Director from 2013 to 2017.\u00a0(Jonathan Ernst\/Reuters)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

New documents on a declassified annex\u00a0to\u00a0Durham\u2019s final report show that officials had concerns rgarding Clinton\u2019s campaign plan to smear then-candidate Trump by connecting him to Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaising the theme of \u201cPutin\u2019s support for Trump\u201d to the level of the Olympics scandal would divert the constituents\u2019 attention from the investigation of Clinton\u2019s compromised electronic correspondence,\u201d reads the annex.<\/p>\n

Included in the annex is a 2016 letter from Leonard Benardo, who worked for the Soros-founded philanthropic network Open Society Foundations and had business in Moscow in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulie says it will be a long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump. Now it is good for a post-convention bounce. Later the FBI will put more oil into the fire,\u201d wrote Benardo.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Julie\u2019 that Benardo references appears to be Clinton foreign policy advisor Julianne Smith, according to the report appendix.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The White House released newly declassified FBI memos showing that the bureau opened a 2017 counterintelligence investigation into whether President Donald Trump\u2019s firing of James Comey was connected to Russia. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-2793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trending","tag-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2794,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions\/2794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}