More details are emerging on how the FBI investigated whether President Trump acted under Russian influence following his dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey in 2017.

PULSE POINTS WHAT HAPPENED: The White House has released documents showing the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation, codenamed Oxferd Comma [sic], after President Donald J. Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, to determine whether the America First leader was acting on behalf of or under the influence of Russia or had obstructed an ongoing investigation. According to an FBI memo dated May 16, 2017, investigators examined whether Trump was directed, controlled, or coordinated by the Russian government in a manner that threatened U.S. national security or violated federal law. DETAIL: The memo cited information from the discredited Crossfire Hurricane investigation, Trump’s interactions with Comey, discussions about the Republican Party’s 2016 platform on Ukraine, and alleged business ties to Russia as factors supporting the inquiry. While the FBI said the circumstances surrounding Comey’s firing could support an inference that the Russia investigation influenced Trump’s decision, the opening of the case did not mean the allegations had been substantiated. Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s 2019 investigation ultimately found no established coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, while declining to reach a prosecutorial decision on obstruction. A 2023 report by Special Counsel John Durham concluded the FBI was biased and lacked sufficient evidentiary support to open the full Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and a separate 2019 Justice Department inspector general review found significant errors in surveillance applications targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The White House release identifies the investigation’s codename as “Oxferd Comma,” a misspelling of “Oxford Comma,” and former acting Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark said a document expert believed a character in “Comma” was the number zero rather than the letter “o,” speculating the spelling may have been intended to make the records more difficult to locate through Freedom of Information Act searches. FLASHBACK: Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s 2016 investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia, was criticized in 2023 by Special Counsel John Durham, who concluded it lacked sufficient evidence to justify its launch.

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