The note, written on FBI letterhead from Comey’s director’s desk, was dated just weeks before the 2016 election and 19 days after the CIA sent Comey an investigative referral regarding intelligence that Hillary Clinton’s campaign had approved a plan to link then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia.
Prosecutors allege that Comey later concealed this referral and other related materials, obstructing internal and congressional investigations.
A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted Comey on September 25 on one count of making false statements and another of obstruction of justice.
The charges stem from alleged efforts to mislead investigators about the FBI’s handling of politically sensitive probes into both presidential candidates in the final months before the 2016 election.
According to the filings, the note was discovered inside Room 9582, a secure compartmented information facility (SCIF) at FBI headquarters that had not been accessed for years.
The internal team that located it was assigned to reform the bureau’s records and classification procedures following whistleblower complaints in early 2025.
The filing says the room was “seemingly unused” until a sudden burst of activity around the week of President Trump’s January 2025 inauguration.
FBI Finds Comey Handwritten Note Referencing ‘HRC Plan’ Before 2016 ElectionRead More
The discovery of Comey’s note came alongside the original Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL) — the CIA document that alerted the FBI in September 2016 to Clinton’s alleged campaign plan.
The team also recovered access logs showing that Room 9582 experienced an unusual increase in entries and data transfers during the days surrounding the presidential transition, raising questions about who entered the facility and what materials were handled.
The court record includes an internal memo from July 21, 2025, showing that the FBI’s Public Corruption Unit formally requested an investigation into the concealment or removal of documents related to both the Clinton and Trump inquiries.
The memo stated that the missing CIA referral had originally been stored in a filing closet adjacent to the FBI director’s office before being moved to Room 9582.
The documents also contradict Comey’s 2020 Senate testimony, in which he claimed no knowledge of the so-called “Clinton plan intelligence.” During a Judiciary Committee hearing on September 30, 2020, Comey said the allegation “doesn’t ring any bells with me.”
The newly filed exhibits also reference the discovery of five burn bags found on the floor of the same FBI secure facility.
Those bags reportedly contained hundreds of pages of documents related to Crossfire Hurricane, the bureau’s 2016 counterintelligence investigation into alleged Trump-Russia ties.
FBI Director Kash Patel, who ordered the internal review, confirmed the discovery in June and later authorized the declassification of several materials, including the previously unreleased classified appendix of the Durham Special Counsel Report.
The Justice Department filing describes the combination of hidden records, delayed disclosures, and handwritten notes as evidence of “a broader pattern of concealment” by senior FBI officials. It asserts that Comey’s notations “corroborate the existence of contemporaneous awareness of the Clinton plan intelligence and suggest an effort to obscure that awareness from oversight entities.”
Legal analysts say the handwritten note could prove significant in the government’s obstruction case, depending on whether prosecutors can demonstrate intent to conceal or destroy records. The filings suggest investigators are also reviewing whether others within the FBI knowingly participated in removing or sequestering materials related to both the Clinton email probe and the Trump-Russia investigation.
The DOJ filing concludes that “taken together, these records reinforce a fact pattern of alleged obstruction and broader conspiracy” within the upper levels of the FBI during the 2016 election period.
