Comey’s ex-media whisperer can’t remember if he leaked classified info to shape Russiagate narrative

A “close friend” of former FBI Director James Comey, who served as his de facto media whisperer to help shape media narratives during Russiagate, said he couldn’t be completely sure he didn’t leak classified intelligence to the press, new documents show.

Daniel Richman, who is now a Columbia University law professor, fessed up to repeatedly talking to journalists, seeking “to correct stories critical of Comey, the FBI and to shape future press coverage,” he told the FBI in 2019.

Richman, who became friends with Comey during their time working together in the Southern District of New York, admitted to speaking with New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt, in particular.

At one point in early 2017, Richman had a discussion with Schmidt, who mentioned unspecified classified information and “knew more about it than he did,” an FBI memo obtained by The Post said.

“Richman was pretty sure he did not confirm the Classified Information. However, Richman told the interviewing agents he was sure ‘with a discount’ that he did not tell Schmidt about the Classified Information. Richman did not know who gave Schmidt the Classified Information.”

While the memo, first reported by Just the News, didn’t specify the classified information discussed, it previously said Comey mentioned to Richman that the bureau had “weird classified material related” to then-US Attorney General Lorretta Lynch.

Lynch infamously met with Bill Clinton on the tarmac in 2016, just over a week before Comey announced he wasn’t recommending charges against Hillary Clinton.

“Richman understood the information could be used to suggest Lynch might not be impartial with regards of the conclusion of the Midyear Exam investigation,” the FBI memo said before describing Richman’s talk with Schmidt.

“Richman understood the information about Lynch was highly classified and it should be protected.”

The FBI memo in question comes from the bureau’s “Arctic Haze” investigation, a probe into the leaking of classified information that began in August 2017 in response to the “unauthorized disclosure of classified information in eight articles published between April and June 2017.”

Arctic Haze dealt with four of those stories specifically. The FBI memos on Arctic Haze were among the tranche of documents Director Kash Patel’s team delivered to Congress earlier this week.

One of Schmidt’s articles cited by the FBI in its Arctic Haze probe was a piece that pointed to the existence of a document that seemed to “raise questions about her [Lynch’s] independence.”

That document, which was reportedly obtained in the aftermath of Russian hacking, revealed that a Democratic operative was remarkably confident Lynch wouldn’t let the probe into Hillary Clinton go too far.

The FBI files did not make it clear whether the document regarding Lynch was the classified information discussed between Richman and Schmidt referenced during his questioning.

Schmidt had used Richman as a source for stories since at least 2008 and even visited his house on multiple occasions, the memo said. Richman was quoted in some stories during the height of Russiagate, but the FBI memo made clear he fed even more information to reporters anonymously.

Notably, Schmidt, who is married to MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, broke the story that Comey claimed President Trump directed him to quash a probe into Michael Flynn over his lobbying deal with Turkey.

That story, coupled with Trump’s May 9, 2017, firing of Comey, led to the Justice Department appointing former special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate allegations of Russian collusion and whether the president obstructed justice.

Richman is known to have leaked Comey’s memos on his behalf about Trump’s alleged instructions on the Flynn investigation. Comey later admitted he hoped that leak “might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”

Former DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz previously blasted the leak of the “Comey Memos” in his scathing report of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane inquiry into whether there were ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.

In 2015, Comey pushed the FBI to hire Richman as a special government employee and give him “a Top Secret clearance.”

“Richman opined Comey took comfort in the fact Richman had talked to the press about his feelings regarding Comey’s handling and decision-making on the Midyear Exam investigation,” the FBI memo said. “Richman claimed Comey never asked him to talk to the media.”

Ultimately, the FBI ended its leak investigation in September 2021, and the DOJ declined to prosecute anyone over the sharing of classified information with reporters.

The batch of files that Patel turned over to Congress this week also revealed the existence of other whimsically-named leak probes such as Riding Hood, Sirens Lure, Tropic Vortex, Foggy Falls, Echos Fate, and Genetic Christmas.