FBI Finds Comey Handwritten Note Referencing ‘HRC Plan’ Before 2016 Election

Newly filed court documents reveal that former FBI Director James Comey authored a 2016 handwritten note referencing “HRC plans to tie Trump” and “HRC health,” discovered earlier this year inside a long-abandoned FBI secure facility.

The note, dated September 26, 2016 — just weeks before the election — was located on official FBI letterhead from Comey’s own director’s desk. Its discovery is now central evidence in the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal case against Comey, who was indicted on September 25 by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, on one count of making false statements and another count of obstruction of justice.

At issue is whether Comey knowingly concealed intelligence and official referrals related to the 2016 presidential campaigns. In mid-September 2016, the CIA provided the FBI with a referral documenting intelligence that Hillary Clinton’s campaign had approved a political strategy to link then-candidate Donald Trump to alleged Russian interference. Prosecutors say Comey withheld that referral and related material during both internal and congressional oversight inquiries.

The newly surfaced note was found inside Room 9582 — a SCIF (secure compartmented information facility) at FBI headquarters that had been dormant for years. It was discovered by internal review teams assigned to overhaul FBI records handling and classification procedures following whistleblower reports in early 2025, shortly after President Donald J. Trump took office for his second term.

According to the filings, the room showed little recorded activity until a sudden spike in access logs around the week of President Trump’s January 2025 inauguration. Those same logs show unusual entry patterns and data transfers, prompting additional questions about who entered the facility and what materials were moved.

Alongside Comey’s handwritten note, investigators recovered the original Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL) — the CIA document outlining the Clinton campaign’s alleged approval of the Trump-Russia narrative — which had previously been reported missing. The documents had originally been stored near the FBI director’s office before being relocated to the sealed room.

A memo entered into the court record shows that on July 21, 2025, the FBI’s Public Corruption Unit formally requested a probe into the concealment or removal of key records concerning both the Clinton email investigation and the FBI’s Trump-Russia “Crossfire Hurricane” operation.

The filings also sharply contradict Comey’s sworn testimony before the Senate on September 30, 2020, when he said the “Clinton plan intelligence” “doesn’t ring any bells with me.”

Adding to the evidentiary weight: internal review teams also discovered five burn bags on the floor of the same secure facility, containing hundreds of pages of Crossfire Hurricane-related materials.

FBI Director Kash Patel, who authorized the internal review, has since confirmed the discoveries and has released several previously classified exhibits, including a classified appendix of the Durham Special Counsel Report.

The Justice Department argues the collection of hidden records, destroyed documents, and Comey’s handwritten note demonstrate “a broader pattern of concealment” at the top levels of the FBI, asserting that the note “corroborate[s] the existence of contemporaneous awareness of the Clinton plan intelligence and suggest[s] an effort to obscure that awareness from oversight entities.”

Legal experts say that if prosecutors show Comey acted intentionally to hide or remove evidence during ongoing investigations, the handwritten note could become a central element in proving obstruction.

The DOJ concludes that the recovered records “reinforce a fact pattern of alleged obstruction and broader conspiracy” shaping federal law enforcement actions during the 2016 election.