Declassified Memos Show FBI Opened Two Separate Probes, One on Sessions, One Alleging Trump Was a Russian Asset

The White House Government Transparency Task Force released a batch of declassified FBI documents this week detailing two separate 2017 investigations opened in the immediate aftermath of James Comey's firing as FBI Director. One targeted Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The other targeted President Trump directly, alleging he might have fired Comey while acting, wittingly or unwittingly, as an agent of the Russian government.

According to the Daily Signal, the FBI opened its probe into Sessions, codenamed MARCH TOLL, on May 10, 2017, one day after Trump fired Comey. The case was classified as a "sensitive investigative matter" and placed under "prohibited status," with oversight from then-Assistant FBI Director E.W. "Bill" Priestap, a key figure in the broader Russia investigation into Trump's campaign.

The Sessions probe stemmed from a March 20, 2017, letter to Comey from Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Al Franken of Minnesota, both members of the Judiciary Committee. The senators argued Sessions had lied during his January 2017 confirmation hearing when he said he had not communicated with Russian officials during the campaign. Leahy had asked in written questions whether Sessions had contact with anyone connected to the Russian government; Sessions answered "No." Franken asked a similar question during the hearing and got a comparable denial.

Just the News reported that the FBI opened the probe even though Sessions had already updated his testimony to acknowledge the disputed contacts by the time the investigation launched. The outlet noted the evidence supporting the case file was, in its words, "a weeks-old letter from Democrats and an article from a liberal news site." A Trump administration official told reporters the timing, opened the day after Comey's firing and roughly six weeks after the senators' letter arrived, raises questions about motive.

The Sessions matter had actually been publicly known since 2018, when his lawyer confirmed Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team had interviewed the attorney general and declined to pursue charges. Mueller's final report concluded investigators could not prove Sessions was "willfully untruthful." The MARCH TOLL file itself closed in May 2018 without further action, according to the Daily Signal.

The second, more serious probe is the one drawing fresh attention. Documents published by the White House and written up by John Solomon show the FBI opened a full criminal investigation into Trump himself on May 16, 2017, codenamed Oxferd Comma, exactly one week after Comey's dismissal. The opening memo, approved by then-FBI General Counsel James Baker and Priestap, stated the bureau sought to determine "if President Trump is or was directed by, controlled by, and/or coordinated activities with, the Russian Federation." It also examined whether firing Comey itself amounted to obstruction of the FBI's counterintelligence work.

Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were both briefed on the investigation, according to the memos. Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel shortly afterward, launching a probe that spanned nearly two years.

RBC-Ukraine, reporting on the same declassified files, noted that internal FBI records show many agents at the time did not actually support the theory used to justify opening the Trump investigation, and that investigators had no evidence of Russia-campaign collusion when the probe began. The outlet also reported the Oxferd Comma file was formally closed on April 9, 2019, after investigators found no link between Trump and Russia.

Both the Sessions and Trump probes trace back to the same institutional moment: Comey's firing on May 9, 2017, and the broader Crossfire Hurricane investigation that had been running since 2016. Special Counsel John Durham's report, released by the Biden Justice Department in 2023, concluded the FBI lacked sufficient basis to open Crossfire Hurricane in the first place, a finding cited by both the Daily Signal and Just the News as context for why these newly declassified spinoff probes deserve scrutiny.

Agents operating in real time after a president abruptly fired the man leading a counterintelligence probe into his own campaign had a plausible institutional reason to ask whether that firing was itself an obstruction risk, regardless of how the underlying Russia collusion theory later held up. Opening an investigation is not the same as proving guilt, and both probes here closed without charges.

What remains unresolved is whether the timing, a Sessions probe opened one day after Comey's firing and a Trump probe opened one week later, reflects normal counterintelligence caution or, as the Trump administration official quoted by Just the News suggested, retaliatory targeting tied to Comey's ouster. No new charges, indictments, or referrals have been announced alongside this document release. The White House has not said whether further declassifications covering other 2017-era investigations are planned.