Newly declassified FBI records reveal that top aides to former FBI Director James Comey used personal email accounts in 2017 to facilitate an “unauthorized disclosure” to journalists, even as Comey had declined to charge Hillary Clinton the year prior for transmitting classified information over a private server.
The memos, released to Congress by Attorney General Pam Bondi after review by current FBI Director Kash Patel, detail a 2019 criminal inquiry code-named TROPIC VORTEX that sought access to the private emails. Prosecutors in Washington, D.C., rejected the request, issuing what the FBI memo described as a “prosecutorial declination decision.”
Investigators concluded that Comey’s chief of staff James Rybicki had forwarded a draft media statement to his personal account in March 2017 “in furtherance of a potentially unauthorized disclosure” at the “implicit direction of Comey.” The message related to President Trump’s tweet alleging his campaign had been wiretapped, which was followed the next day by a New York Times article citing government sources about Comey’s private request that DOJ dismiss the claim.
Although prosecutors ordered preservation of Rybicki’s private account, they ultimately decided against pursuing further legal action because the material itself was unclassified. The Washington Field Office later noted that prosecutors declined to use investigative materials in a planned interview with Rybicki and formally closed the leak inquiry.
The disclosures add to earlier testimony from Comey aides Rybicki and former FBI General Counsel James Baker, who told investigators that Comey personally authorized leaks of classified information to the press before the 2016 election. That separate probe, overseen by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and U.S. Attorney John Durham, centered on classified leaks to the Times weeks before Trump defeated Clinton. No charges resulted.
Another newly declassified appendix to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s 2018 report shows Comey’s decision to clear Clinton of criminal charges in 2016 was influenced by classified intelligence reports, including allegations the Obama administration sought to protect her candidacy. Horowitz’s report concluded Comey acted in an “extraordinary and insubordinate” manner by unilaterally announcing the case was closed.
