The White House on Wednesday released declassified FBI memos showing the bureau investigated whether President Donald Trump’s firing of James Comey was tied to Russia under the oddly spelled code name “Oxferd Comma,” fueling speculation that the misspelling was intentional.
Former acting Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark alleged the code name was deliberately altered to make records of the investigation harder to find.
“The FBI under James Comey and Christopher Wray was hopelessly corrupt. 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, who serves as vice president of litigation at the Oversight Project, told Fox News Digital.
“They called it OXFERD C0MMA (note the zero for the second ‘o’ and the misspelling of the University). The FBI managers thought this was clever. They imagined themselves as Blofeld in a James Bond movie deviously defeating the Freedom of Information Act,” Clark added, referring to the James Bond supervillain.
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Clark explained on social media that he “consulted with a document expert” who concluded the first “o” in “Comma” was actually a zero – further obscuring the probe’s name.
Investigators on the “Oxferd Comma” case sought to determine whether 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 a May 16, 2017, FBI memo.
Trump fired Comey in May 2017, with the White House initially citing Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The FBI opened the “Oxferd Comma” probe days later to examine whether the firing was connected to Russia.
“Additionally, let me speculate that James Comey was well-known by his associates as liking Oxford commas, so they named the operation (clearly motivated by revenge in response to Trump firing Comey) as a hommage (Fr.) to their beloved Comey,” Clark added. “But that doesn’t explain why it was deliberately misspelled as ‘Oxferd.’”
Clark, who served in Trump’s first administration, argued that the misspelling could have made it more difficult for anyone searching for records related to the operation. He suggested that a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request using the correct spelling might not have returned the relevant documents, potentially allowing the FBI to say that no responsive records had been found.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Wray, Comey and the White House for comment.
“It should be investigated as an obstruction of justice. You know, some real obstruction of an official proceeding,” Clark posted to X.
The unusual spelling also drew attention on social media, where users resurfaced a 2017 Comey post about Oxford commas.
“Check the actual cover. I’m all about Oxford commas,” Comey wrote in a 2017 X post about his then-forthcoming memoir, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.”
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The FBI did not directly address the code name when asked by Fox News Digital on Thursday.
“The weaponization that occurred against President Trump under prior regimes was inexcusable and wholly un-American. Director Patel himself was the lead investigator who originally exposed the disgraceful Crossfire Hurricane scandal – and as Director, he has released over 40,000 pages of documents to the public exposing similar malfeasance from former FBI leadership – a three fold increase from both his predecessors combined,” Ben Williamson, assistant director of the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs, said.
“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,” Williamson added.
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