A new report from the White House, written by John Solomon, the Editor in Chief of Just the News, who currently serves as the Chairman of the White House Government Transparency Task Force, reveals that the FBI opened a criminal probe against President Trump after he fired then-Director James Comey.
The investigation, called Oxferd Comma, was based on an allegation that Trump may have been working as a Russian asset upon firing Comey.
“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,” the electronic communication opening the probe on May 16, 2017 stated.
“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,” it 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.”
According to the report, the probe was labeled as a “sensitive investigative matter,” and the FBI claimed it was “the least intrusive method to address the serious national security risk posed by the activities alleged.” Roberts wrote that while the FBI said the investigation was nonintrusive, it led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who later concluded that any links between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign were unsubstantiated.
A separate investigation launched by Special Counsel John Durham and released in 2023 found that there was no basis for the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation, a probe launched in 2016. Former National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard also released a report shredding the narrative that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help President Donald Trump win in 2016. She revealed that the idea that Putin wanted to assist Trump was based on “one scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports,” the declassified documents read.
Records later indicated that Comey was fired because the DOJ believed he mishandled the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
The Oxferd Comma case was closed in 2019.
Solomon’s report is significant in its revelation that the FBI based its case on the concern that Trump was a Russian asset, an idea that was dismissed by agents working on the earlier Crossfire Hurricane investigation. “I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there,” then-Deputy Assistant Director Pete Strzok wrote to FBI Special Counsel Lisa Page in 2017 in the same week the Oxferd Comma case launched.
