Two U.S. officials briefed on the inspector general's investigation of possible FBI misconduct said Comey was essentially "running a covert operation against" the president...
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In his recently published memoir, "A Higher Loyalty," Comey denied having "a counterintelligence case file open on [Trump]," though he qualified the denial by adding this was true only in the "literal" sense. He also twice denied investigating Trump, under oath, in congressional testimony.
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[Comey] also did some online sleuthing, personally searching Trump on Google and even looking through hours of YouTube videos of him.
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At the same time Comey was personally scrutinizing the president during meetings in the White House and phone conversations from the FBI, he had an agent inside the White House working on the Russia investigation, where he reported back to FBI headquarters about Trump and his aides, according to officials familiar with the matter. The agent, Anthony Ferrante, who specialized in cyber crime, left the White House around the same time Comey was fired and soon joined a security consulting firm, where he contracted with BuzzFeed to lead the news site's efforts to verify the Steele dossier, in connection with a defamation lawsuit.
Knowledgeable sources inside the Trump White House say Comey carved out an extraordinary new position for Ferrante, which allowed him to remain on reserve status at the FBI while working in the White House as a cybersecurity adviser.
"In an unprecedented action, Comey created a new FBI reserve position for Ferrante, enabling him to have an ongoing relationship with the agency, retaining his clearances and enabling him to come back in [to bureau headquarters]," said a former National Security Council official who requested anonymity.
"Between the election and April 2017, when Ferrante finally left the White House, the Trump NSC division supervisor was not allowed to get rid of Ferrante," he added, "and Ferrante continued working -- in direct conflict with the no-contact policy between the White House and the Department of Justice."
Through a spokeswoman at FTI Consulting, which maintains the BuzzFeed contract, Ferrante declined to comment.
Another FBI official, Jordan Rae Kelly, who worked closely with Mueller when he headed the bureau, replaced Ferrante upon his White House exit (though she signed security logs for him to continue entering the White House as a visitor while he was working for BuzzFeed). Kelly left the White House last year and joined Ferrante at FTI Consulting.
Working with Comey liaison Ferrante at the NSC in early 2017 was another Obama holdover -- Tashina Gauhar, who remains a top national security adviser at the Justice Department.
