FBI classified leak inquiries into false Russiagate stories failed to hold anyone accountable

The FBI launched more than half a dozen wide-ranging investigations into leaks to the media as numerous legacy outlets deployed the classified information to push false claims of Trump-Russia collusion, but the bureau failed to hold anyone accountable for the classified leaking, a Just the News investigation shows.

The newly-declassified FBI memos detail a host of failed or botched classified leaks inquiries, with revelations from at least seven leak inquiries contained within the bombshell documents first obtained and now released by Just the News. The FBI concluded that numerous news stories which contributed to the false Russiagate narrative contained illegally leaked classified intelligence, but bureau investigators repeatedly failed — perhaps willingly — to definitively identify the leakers.

The problems that FBI investigators said they faced included large pools of potential leakers within the federal government sometimes numbering in the dozens or into the hundreds due to the wide dissemination of the intelligence, uncooperative Justice Department partners, restrictions on the use of data from the spy agencies which were victims of the leaks, investigations being launched only many months after the leaks occurred, congressional staffers invoking speech or debate privilege to stymie inquiries, DOJ declining to pursue prosecutions, and more.

Comey manipulated The New York Times into carrying water

Despite the failures of all of these FBI leak investigations, Just the News revealed this week that FBI agents did force a stunning admission that ex-FBI Director James Comey used a special conduit to the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times in his bid to polish his image and push for a special prosecutor to take down Trump.

Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman admitted to agents that he routinely communicated on behalf of Comey, his longtime friend, with Times reporter Michael Schmidt, whose work was among the newspaper’s 2018 Pulitzer-winning stories on the Russiagate saga. The goal, Richman told the FBI, was “to correct stories critical” of Comey and the FBI and to “shape future press coverage.”

Richman insisted he did not believe he had confirmed or provided classified intelligence to reporters but said he could not be 100 percent certain, the memos state, noting he could only make his leak denial “with a discount.” The revelations about Comey and Richman were revealed as part of an FBI classified leak investigation dubbed Arctic Haze, according to the declassified memos obtained by Just the News on Tuesday. The inquiry did not result in any prosecutions, although significant details about the investigation remain redacted.

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