Subpoena to Comey Confidant Signals Renewed Push in Leak Probe
Sandego.net – Federal prosecutors in southern Florida have served a grand jury subpoena on Daniel Richman, a longtime personal friend and informal adviser to former FBI Director James Comey, compelling him to testify in a revived inquiry into whether Comey passed sensitive government information to journalists. The move, confirmed by a person familiar with the investigation, marks a significant escalation in a case that has lingered in the background since the early months of President Donald Trump’s first term.
The subpoena effectively resurrects allegations that Comey used Richman as a conduit to deliver memos — documents describing private conversations with the president or details of ongoing investigations — directly to reporters. It also represents the first visible sign that prosecutors assigned to a sprawling “grand conspiracy” investigation, spanning events from 2016 through 2024, have broadened their lens beyond the earlier focus on former CIA Director John Brennan.
The Broader Probe and Its Internal Frictions
The grand conspiracy inquiry has faced considerable headwinds within the Justice Department itself. Career prosecutors stationed in the Southern District of Florida have reportedly resisted the sweeping narrative pushed by Trump allies, who argue that a coordinated effort to undermine the president stretched across multiple agencies and years. Joe DiGenova, a veteran former U.S. attorney, assumed leadership of the case in recent months after publicly stating his belief that the evidentiary record supported pursuing the broader theory. Richman’s subpoena appears to be one of the first concrete steps under his watch.
Origins of the Leak Allegations
The controversy traces back to the days immediately following Trump’s dismissal of Comey as FBI director in May 2017. After leaving the bureau, Comey shared at least one internal memo — a document outlining his conversations with the president — with Richman. Richman then relayed its contents to a reporter at The New York Times, which published portions of the material. That single act became the nucleus of years of scrutiny.
Richman has addressed the episode directly, noting:
“The substance of the memo passed on to the Times was not marked classified and to my knowledge remains unclassified.”
He has not offered additional comment on the subpoena itself.
A Pattern of Investigations
Questions about Comey’s post-departure communications have surfaced in multiple formal inquiries over the past several years. The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General examined the matter, and Special Counsel John Durham — appointed to investigate the origins of the federal Russia-interference probe — reviewed Comey’s decisions as part of his broader mandate. Durham ultimately charged three individuals connected to the original investigation and criticized certain choices made by Comey and other senior officials. Yet Durham stopped short of recommending criminal prosecution against Comey himself, finding the evidence insufficient for that purpose.
The newly issued subpoena suggests that a different group of prosecutors now believes the record warrants another look at criminal liability. If charges were ultimately filed against Comey, it would constitute the Justice Department’s third distinct attempt to prosecute one of Trump’s most prominent political adversaries.
Other Charges Already Pending
Comme already faces a separate criminal case in which he is accused of threatening the president through a social media post featuring an image of sea shells arranged to spell out the number “8647.” In common usage, “86” means to eliminate or dispose of something, and 47 is the ordinal number of the current president. Both existing cases — that one and an earlier count alleging false statements to Congress — incorporated Comey’s communications with Richman as evidence. The false-statement charges were dismissed by a federal judge last year, but the sea-shell case remains active.
The same exchanges between the two men that prosecutors examined in those earlier matters are now the subject of this renewed grand jury inquiry, meaning Richman’s testimony could carry implications across multiple dockets simultaneously.
What Comes Next
A grand jury subpoena does not itself signal that charges will follow; it compels testimony so that prosecutors can evaluate whether the evidence meets the threshold for indictment. Richman will be required to appear before the grand jury and answer questions under oath. The scope of questioning — whether it will be limited to the single 2017 memo or extend to other communications over the years — remains unclear.
For observers tracking the intersection of politics and federal prosecution, the subpoena underscores a broader pattern: investigations that were previously closed or narrowed are being reopened under new leadership, and the boundaries of what constitutes a prosecutable leak of unclassified material continue to be tested in the courts and in the public square.
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