Newly released FBI memoranda indicate that former bureau director James Comey authorised the transfer of classified material to the New York Times in 2017 through Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman, a long-time confidant whom Comey arranged to have a Top-Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance and a paid advisory role. According to the documents—part of the formerly secret “Arctic Haze” leak investigation—Richman told agents he had ‘routinely’ communicated with Times reporter Michael Schmidt and other journalists on Comey’s behalf. The inquiry centred on four news stories published between April and May 2017 that quoted Richman or contained information later judged to be classified. One memorandum states that Comey also directed senior FBI officials, including Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, to brief the newspaper for at least one of the articles. The leaks helped set in motion the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel on 17 May 2017, a day after the Times reported the contents of Comey’s contemporaneous memos on meetings with President Donald Trump. Although investigators concluded that classified information had been disclosed without authorisation, the Justice Department closed the case in September 2021 and declined to bring charges against Comey, Richman or other officials, citing evidentiary hurdles. The memoranda, declassified on 13 August 2025 and transmitted to congressional committees by FBI Director Kash Patel, provide the most detailed public account to date of how senior bureau leadership used an unofficial channel to shape media coverage of the Russia-interference narrative during the early months of the Trump administration.