James Comey walked out of a Virginia courthouse in November thinking he'd beaten the Justice Department.
Nine months later a federal grand jury just proved him wrong.
A subpoena landed on his best friend's desk Monday, and it exposes exactly what Comey never wanted the country to see.
The FBI Director Who Leaked and Walked
Daniel Richman got the subpoena Monday. Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia want him back in front of a grand jury.
The topic is the same one that's followed Comey since 2017: whether he used Richman to funnel information to The New York Times.
This is the third time the Justice Department has come after Comey for it.
The first attempt happened during Trump's first term. Prosecutors closed it in 2021 the moment Joe Biden took office.
The second attempt was last November's indictment, thrown out on a technicality when a judge ruled prosecutor Lindsey Halligan had been unlawfully appointed. Comey never faced a jury. He faced a paperwork error that saved him.
Now there's a third attempt, and this time it's not about Trump memos. It's about Hillary Clinton.
What Comey's Own Watchdog Already Found
Prosecutors believe this new leak involves the FBI's 2016 investigation into Clinton's private email server – the one Comey supposedly ran by the book.
A previously classified FBI memo, published by Just the News, revealed the bureau code-named this leak hunt "Arctic Haze." Richman was interviewed. He told agents he'd talked to a Times reporter but claimed he didn't know how classified details got into the story.
That's not the only code name. The Justice Department's inspector general catalogued a whole list of Comey-linked leak investigations – Tropic Vortex, Foggy Falls, Riding Hood, Sirens Lure, Echos Fate, Genetic Christmas.
Six separate leak investigations tied to one FBI director, and most never produced charges. That's not proof he's clean. That's proof he's been protected.
This isn't Comey's first brush with a leak investigation, either. Back in 2019, the inspector general found he'd broken FBI policy on an unrelated leak – handing Richman his own memos on private Trump conversations, then having Richman pass the contents to reporters. Comey walked away calling it vindication, since the memos weren't stamped classified. What the watchdog actually said was harsher: Comey had set a dangerous example for the entire bureau, all to manufacture the outcome he wanted.
That outcome was Robert Mueller's appointment as special counsel. Two years of investigation followed. Comey never paid a price for how he got there.
Why This Time Is Different
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche isn't running this alone. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just stood up a joint Pentagon-DOJ task force built specifically to hunt down leakers and prosecute them "with the full force of the law."
That task force already has subpoenas out for reporters at the Times. The leak-and-deny playbook Comey wrote in 2017 does not survive contact with it.
Comey is staring down a statute of limitations problem and a judge who's already thrown him a lifeline once. Legal analysts have noted that lifeline may not exist twice – dismissal without prejudice only helps if prosecutors can still act before the clock runs out, and this time they're not waiting.
Blanche has already laid out the administration's posture on Comey in plain terms: threatening the president is "a grave violation of our nation's laws," and "the temperature needs to be turned down" before anyone else pays for it with their life. Reporting on this exact leak subpoena ties that statement directly back to the broader case against him. Same defendant, same acting attorney general, same message – accountability finally showing up nine years late.
Richman is already fighting back in court, suing to block prosecutors from using evidence pulled off his old devices. That tells you everything about how worried Comey's camp actually is.
He called it principle. The people writing subpoenas call it a paper trail.
Sources:
- Brooke Taylor and Anders Hagstrom, "New Federal Grand Jury Subpoena Issued to Former James Comey Advisor in Leak Investigation," Fox News, August 31, 2026.
- Debra Heine, "Report: Federal Grand Jury Issues Subpoena to Comey Pal Daniel Richman in Revived Leak Investigation," American Greatness, August 31, 2026.
- Hannah Rabinowitz, "Longtime Friend to Trump Foe James Comey Subpoenaed in New Leak Investigation," CNN, August 31, 2026.
- "Hegseth Announces Joint Task Force With DOJ to Prosecute Leaks to Journalists 'With the Full Force of the Law,'" Fox News, July 13, 2026.
- Dareh Gregorian, Gary Grumbach and Ryan J. Reilly, "Judge Dismisses Cases Against James Comey and Letitia James After Finding Prosecutor Was Unlawfully Appointed," NBC News, November 24, 2025.
- Andrew Goudsward, "Key Figure in Comey Case Sues to Block Use of Evidence as DOJ Mulls Second Indictment," Reuters, December 2025.
- Grace Segers, "Inspector General Finds James Comey Did Not Release Classified Information to the Public," CBS News, August 29, 2019.
