Newly declassified FBI memoranda sent to Congress this week detail how former Director James Comey in early 2017 instructed senior agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, as well as the bureau’s press office, to “assist the New York Times” with an article on the Russia investigation. The documents say the pair briefed reporters on 30 March 2017 after being told the newspaper already possessed classified information. Separate interview notes from the FBI’s leak probe show Comey had earlier put Columbia law professor Daniel Richman on the bureau’s payroll as an unpaid special-government employee with Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance. Richman told agents he regularly passed Comey’s views to Times reporter Michael Schmidt and was only “pretty sure— with a discount” that he had not confirmed classified material. The disclosures come from “Arctic Haze,” a leak investigation opened on 14 August 2017 that examined four media stories carrying material the bureau deemed classified. The inquiry concluded in September 2021 with no criminal referrals after the Justice Department said it could not prove who leaked what, despite internal findings of unauthorized disclosures. Current FBI Director Kash Patel provided the files to House and Senate committees on 12 August. The release revives questions first raised by the Justice Department inspector general in 2019, who called Comey’s earlier release of his Trump meeting memos “unauthorized.” While the latest documents outline a deliberate media strategy by the former director, the Justice Department again signaled it has no plans to reopen the case.