Do the Comey Memos Even Exist?

A friend of Fired FBI Director James Comey helped him leak supposed memos to the press and that friend has now disappeared casting doubt on the existence of the documents.

Comey admitted to coordinating the leaking of FBI memos that allegedly documented conversations between the President and himself. He asked an FBI contact to pass the memo to the press through Columbia University Professor Daniel Richman.

Now, members of Congress want those memos, but the documents and the professor have gone missing.

Richman reportedly went off-the-grid midday on June 8th shortly after confirming to reporters that he was the one who leaked to the press on Comey’s behalf. He has not been seen or heard from since. His family and friends are not answering questions from the media.

Comey says he does not have a copy of the documents and the FBI has refused to turn over the otherwise unseen memos. That leaves Richman as the only person that might be able to produce the original that he used to leak to the New York Times – unless of course, it never existed.

Perhaps when Comey “woke up in the middle of the night” thinking about Trump’s threat of recordings, he wasn’t really hoping there were tapes. It is more likely that he knew right then that he needed to control the narrative.

Was Comey calling Trump’s bluff about the tapes? Probably. Putting out a false account of the conversation that would serve to make the President appear dishonest would make Comey the only credible party in he said – he said debate that has no other witnesses.

Making up the memos would remove the criminal aspect of them having been leaked. If they were but a figment of Comey’s imagination, they could not be considered work product, government property or things of value. All of which kills any Federal Records Act prosecution. But, it could lead to perjury charges if Congress chooses to pursue Comey for having lied under oath that he created the memos on his FBI laptop, in an FBI car, documenting an official conversation with President Trump.

If the memos exist and have the chain-of-custody to show when, where and how they were created, why did Comey not send them directly to Congress or to Special Counsel Robert Mueller? The documents would be considered evidence in the Russia investigation. Why has Robert Mueller not subpoenaed Comey, the FBI or Richman to produce the memos?

None of this makes sense if the memos are real. The facts line up if one assumes that the memos were created in Comey’s head after he got fired:

• There would be no way for the FBI to produce them since they weren’t created on his FBI laptop
• Richman had to disappear because he didn’t have the memos. He leaked based on information Comey gave him over the phone.
• Comey doesn’t have a copy of the memos because he made them up after losing access to his FBI laptop

If the memos are fake, Comey could be facing perjury charges and disgrace. If they are real, he’s facing Federal Records Act charges. Neither are good for a career in law or law enforcement. But hey, he’s got a $10 million book and movie deal so what does he care?