Declassified FBI memos show the bureau investigated whether President Donald Trump's dismissal of then-Director James Comey was tied to Russia under the uniquely spelled codename "Oxferd Comma." This has led to allegations that the misspelling was intentional, designed to make records of the investigation harder to locate through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
Former Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark asserted that the FBI deliberately altered the codename. "The FBI under James Comey and Christopher Wray was hopelessly corrupt," Clark told Fox News Digital. "To penalize President Trump’s firing of Comey, they created a ridiculous investigation into Trump on the theory he was a witting or unwitting Russian agent."
Clark further claimed that the FBI managers considered the misspelled name, which also used a zero instead of the second 'o' in "Comma," to be a clever tactic. He compared it to a James Bond villain devising a scheme to thwart the FOIA.
Investigators working on the "Oxferd Comma" case aimed to determine if Trump was "directed by, controlled by, and/or coordinated activities with, the Russian Federation in a manner constituting a threat to the national security of the United States and/or a violation of federal criminal statutes," according to an FBI memo dated May 16, 2017.
Trump fired Comey in May 2017, with the White House initially citing Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The FBI initiated the "Oxferd Comma" probe shortly thereafter to examine any potential connection between the firing and Russia.
Clark suggested that the misspelling could have hindered searches for relevant documents. He posited that a FOIA request using the correct spelling might not have yielded the pertinent records, potentially allowing the FBI to claim no responsive documents existed.
The unusual spelling also drew attention on social media, where users noted a 2017 post by Comey expressing his preference for Oxford commas. "I’m all about Oxford commas," Comey wrote in a post about his then-upcoming memoir.
When approached for comment, the FBI did not directly address the codename. Ben Williamson, assistant director of the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs, stated, "The weaponization that occurred against President Trump under prior regimes was inexcusable and wholly un-American."
Williamson added, "As we’ve said repeatedly: any individual who is found to have acted unethically or engaged in weaponization has been or will be fired from the Bureau and held accountable under the law."