Newly declassified memos reveal federal prosecutors secured evidence from FBI brass indicating that former FBI Director James authorized classified leaks shortly before the 2016 election, but they declined to bring charges.
According to the memos obtained by Just The News, an investigation by the US Postal Inspection Service Agents revealed former FBI General Counsel James Baker and Comey’s Chief of Staff James Rybicki were involved in leaking the classified information to The New York Times in October 2016.
The specific classified information was not identified.
“The USPIS Investigation also revealed Baker disclosed USG classified information to the NYT under the belief he was ultimately instructed and authorized to do so by then FBI Director James Comey,” one summary memo reads, according to Just The News. “For example, during interviews, Baker indicated FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki instructed him (Baker) to disclose the information to the NYT, and Baker understood Rybicki was conveying this instruction and authorization from Comey.”
Just The News reported:
Federal prosecutors gathered evidence from James Comey’s top lieutenants that he authorized the leak of classified information to reporters just before the 2016 election but declined to bring criminal charges, according to recently declassified memos that call into question the former FBI director’s testimony to Congress.
The bombshell revelations involving ex-FBI general counsel James Baker and ex-Comey chief of staff James Rybicki were memorialized in documents that FBI Director Kash Patel discovered earlier this year, but the passages were originally redacted by the Justice Department in versions sent to Congress earlier this month.
Attorney General Pam Bondi intervened and eliminated the redactions, dispatching new versions of the memos this week to the House and Senate Judiciary committees, officials told Just the News.
The memos detail evidence and interviews gathered by U.S. Postal Inspection Service agents concerning classified information leaked to The New York Times in October 2016, ahead of the November election in which Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.
This is not the first time it was revealed James Comey authorized the leaks of classified information.
Newly declassified memos reveal James Comey’s secret media mole Daniel Richman leaked classified information to The New York Times’s Michael Schmidt to help push for a special counsel in May 2017.
It was previously reported that James Comey penned nine memos stemming from his conversations with President Trump – and then leaked them through his Columbia University law professor ‘friend’ Daniel Richman.
The leaks ultimately worked. On May 17, 2017, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller to serve as Special Counsel to investigate the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.
Newly declassified memos reveal former FBI leadership authorized classified leaks while misleading Congress.
Thanks to President Trump’s push for transparency, the cover-up is finally being exposed. Accountability must follow. pic.twitter.com/C2gjRhCELb
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 21, 2025
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