Justice Department issues subpoena to Comey ally in new leak investigation

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez, CNN

(CNN) — Federal prosecutors issued a grand jury subpoena requiring Daniel Richman, a longtime friend and adviser to former FBI director James Comey, to testify in a renewed probe into whether Comey improperly shared sensitive information with the media, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

The subpoena indicates that prosecutors have returned to longstanding allegations that Comey used Richman to leak memos he had written about sensitive investigations or meetings with President Donald Trump to reporters.

It also is the first indication that prosecutors in Florida, who were brought in to pursue a probe into a so-called grand conspiracy against Trump stretching from 2016 to 2024, have widened their focus beyond possible charges against former CIA Director John Brennan.

The probe has struggled to gain traction, with career prosecutors in southern Florida, balking at the “grand conspiracy” theory pushed by Trump allies. Joe DiGenova, a seasoned former US attorney, took over leadership of the probe in recent months after publicly claiming he believed there was evidence to pursue the broader case.

The controversy over the alleged leaks to the New York Times began in the early days of Trump’s first administration. After he was fired as FBI director by Trump, Comey shared at least one memo describing his conversations with the president with Richman, who then shared it with a New York Times reporter.

Richman has said that while he did share the contents of that memo, “the substance of the memo passed on to the Times was not marked classified and to my knowledge remains unclassified.”

CNN has reached out to Richman for comment.

The allegations into Comey’s conduct have been at the center of multiple investigations, including by the Justice Department’s inspector general and by Special Counsel John Durham, who was brought in to examine the origins of the federal investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Durham brought charges against three people associated with the probe and while he criticized some of the decisions made by Comey and other top government officials, Durham didn’t find evidence to support criminal prosecutions against them.

But the newly issued subpoena suggests that prosecutors are once again considering bringing a criminal case in the matter. If they did so against Comey, it would mark the department’s third attempt to prosecute one of Trump’s most prominent political foes.

Comey is already facing charges that he threatened Trump with a social media post depicting sea shells that spelled out “8647.” The term 86 is sometimes used to refer to getting rid of or removing something and Trump is the 47th president. He was also facing charges for allegedly making false statements to Congress, but those charges were thrown out by a judge last year.

Both cases included Comey’s communications with Richman, the same communications that would be reviewed for this probe.

The subpoena of Richman was first reported by Fox News.

This story was updated with additional information.

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