Former FBI Director James Comey anticipated a Hillary Clinton victory in the 2016 presidential election and maintained contact with an FBI employee tasked with tracking media leaks favorable to her campaign, according to new evidence presented by federal prosecutors on Monday.
Personal emails, handwritten notes, and other internal documents revealed in court filings portray a bureau chief who privately aligned himself with Clinton’s prospects while overseeing investigations that directly affected her campaign and her opponent, Donald J. Trump.
“Well done my friend. Who knew this would. E so uh fun [sic],” Comey wrote in a November 2016 email to Dan Richman, a former FBI special government employee. The email came shortly after Richman briefed Comey on his efforts to guide The New York Times in its coverage of Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.
According to the filing, “Richman corresponded extensively with members of the media regarding or on behalf of the defendant, including in an anonymous capacity.” The documents suggest that Comey and Richman were in close communication about how the press framed Clinton’s ongoing controversy, even as the FBI maintained a public posture of neutrality.
Comey now faces charges of making false statements and obstructing Congress. Prosecutors allege that during his 2020 testimony, he falsely denied authorizing anonymous leaks to the media concerning both the Clinton email investigation and the FBI’s subsequent pursuit of what became known as the “Russia collusion” narrative targeting President Trump.
The filings further allege that Comey knowingly withheld critical intelligence from lawmakers. Investigators say they discovered handwritten notes hidden within a restricted FBI storage room that indicate Comey was aware of intelligence as early as 2016 suggesting that Clinton herself had approved a plan to link Trump to Russian interference.
Comey, who testified in 2020 that he had “no recollection” of such intelligence, appeared to contradict that claim in his own notes dated September 26, 2016, which reportedly read: “HRC plan to tie Trump.”
The revelation that such documentation existed—and that it was allegedly concealed from both Congress and the public—has reignited debate over the FBI’s conduct during one of the most politically charged periods in modern American history.
Conservatives have long argued that Comey’s bureau, rather than acting as an impartial law enforcement agency, operated as a political instrument that sought to influence the outcome of the election and later undermine Trump’s presidency.
The new filings underscore the growing sense among many Republicans that the FBI under Comey’s leadership blurred the line between investigation and interference. The suggestion that a senior FBI official was monitoring media “leak efforts” to shape press coverage favorable to Clinton may further erode public confidence in the agency’s independence.
While Comey has repeatedly defended his tenure as guided by “integrity and fairness,” the evidence laid out by prosecutors paints a markedly different picture—one in which the nation’s top law enforcement official appeared to cheer on a political candidate while managing the very investigations that helped define the election’s outcome.
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