A dusty FBI safe has unveiled a handwritten bombshell that could rewrite the story of the 2016 presidential race. What secrets did former FBI Director James Comey tuck away, only to surface in the shadow of President Donald Trump's 2025 inauguration?
According to new legal filings reported by the Daily Caller, Comey's note from Sept. 26, 2016, bears the cryptic phrase "HRC plans to tie Trump" alongside a mention of "HRC health," penned just weeks after receiving a referral about Hillary Clinton's alleged campaign strategy to link Trump to Russia.
The note, marked with the emblem of the FBI director’s desk, aligns with a Sept. 7, 2016, investigative referral detailing Clinton’s supposed plan to deflect scrutiny from her private email server scandal by painting Trump as a Russian asset. Now, with Comey indicted on charges of making false statements and obstruction of justice by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., on Sept. 25, the timing of this find stinks of deeper concealment.
In the spring of 2025, an FBI reform team acted on a tip about Room 9582, a secure facility for classified materials that had seen little use for years. Inside a safe, they found Comey’s notes alongside the original CIA tip about Clinton’s strategy, dubbed a Counterintelligence Operational Lead.
Access logs for the room revealed a curious spike in activity during the four days surrounding Trump’s 2025 inauguration, hinting at possible efforts to revisit or obscure old records. This timeline fuels suspicion that someone within the bureau might have been tidying up loose ends as a new administration took power.
Further digging uncovered five burn bags in a nearby room, stuffed with hundreds of pages tied to Crossfire Hurricane, the 2016 probe into alleged Trump-Russia ties, as revealed by current FBI Director Kash Patel in June. Patel’s subsequent declassification of some documents, including parts of the Durham Special Counsel Report, only deepens the sense that critical history was nearly reduced to ashes.
During his 2020 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey claimed ignorance about Clinton’s alleged plan, stating, "it doesn’t ring any bells with me." Such a blank slate seems hard to swallow now, with his own handwriting suggesting otherwise from a mere four years prior.
That testimony, paired with the newly surfaced note, paints a troubling picture of selective amnesia or worse, especially as legal filings allege a broader conspiracy within the FBI to hide documents about its handling of both 2016 candidates. If Comey knew of Clinton’s tactics and stayed silent, the public trust in impartial justice takes a heavy blow.
Additional filings from July 2025 show a request by the FBI’s public corruption unit to probe unknown bureau members for possibly concealing or moving documents, including the Clinton plan intelligence initially stashed near Comey’s office. This shuffle of sensitive files to Room 9582 reeks of a cover-up attempt, undermining any claim of mere oversight.
Declassified reports from 2020 by then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe pointed to Russian intelligence alleging Clinton greenlit a scandal to tie Trump to Putin and the Democratic National Committee hack in late July 2016. This aligns disturbingly with Comey’s note, suggesting he was briefed on foreign chatter about Clinton’s moves.
More documents, declassified in July 2025 by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, cite Russian reports claiming Clinton’s health issues, including "intensified psycho-emotional problems," alarmed party leaders like President Barack Obama. While foreign intelligence must be taken with skepticism, Comey’s jotting of "HRC health" indicates he at least entertained the concern enough to write it down.
These Russian analyses, detailed in a House Intelligence Committee report, list alleged conditions like Type 2 diabetes and heart disease for Clinton, painting a picture of vulnerability her campaign might have sought to bury. Whether true or not, the FBI’s apparent inaction on such intelligence at the time raises questions about whose interests were truly being served.
The unearthing of Comey’s notes and related files in 2025 isn’t just a historical footnote; it’s a glaring reminder that the machinery of justice can be gamed by those at the top. When handwritten hints of political scheming sit locked away while public narratives spin unchecked, faith in institutions frays at the seams.
This case, now unfolding with Comey’s indictment, demands answers about why critical information was buried and who stood to gain from the silence. It’s not enough to unearth old safes; the public deserves a full accounting of how far the rot of politicized investigations spread within the FBI.
As Patel continues to declassify records, the hope is for clarity over conspiracy, ensuring that no future election sees such shadowy maneuvers hidden behind bureaucratic walls. If lessons aren’t learned from 2016’s tangled web, the cycle of distrust will only tighten its grip on our democratic process.
