The Forgotten Protocol - How James Comey Knew in 2016 What America Still Denies

Washington – It is an unassuming sheet of paper, little more than a few lines, hastily noted, almost casual. Yet within these lines lies a political detonation. The United States Department of Justice could no longer avoid releasing a handwritten note by then-FBI Director James Comey, dated September 26, 2016 – six weeks before the election that brought Donald Trump into the White House. The document, now filed as “Government Exhibit 13” in an ongoing case on November 3, 2025, shows that U.S. authorities already had indications at that time of two explosive facts: possible financial ties between Trump and Moscow – and coordinated Russian attacks on American voter databases.

JB – We have CID (likely the Counterintelligence Division)
– Uncertainty about Hillary Clinton
– Contractors have access to the system
– Hillary Clinton plans to hit Trump
– Clinton’s health

Kerry – Trump finances
– Debts to Moscow

JB – Journalist(s) say they are working with Trump
I mentioned the New York Times – Russia

Durbin – The Department of Justice should examine a pattern in the intrusions and scans of state voter databases

Comey wrote in pen what now appears like a silhouette of truth. It says: “Kerry – Trump finances – debts to Moscow.” John Kerry, then Secretary of State, is said to have raised the issue: Trump’s finances, his possible obligations in Russia. In the same notes, Comey also recorded that the Department of Justice was asked to “examine a pattern in the intrusions and scans of state voter databases.” In the same meeting, according to the record, there was also talk of “journalists working with Trump” – with direct mention of the New York Times and Russia.

These words now stand in black and white in the government archive – and they prove that the FBI leadership in the fall of 2016 already knew that a foreign power was interfering in American democracy. The note dates from a period when the FBI was still officially conducting two investigations: one against Hillary Clinton over her private emails, and another, covert, into Russian influence operations. James Comey

The line about “Trump finances – debts to Moscow” is a time bomb that lay in the dark for nine years. If it is confirmed that the FBI already had indications in 2016 of Russian money flows to Trump or his companies, it would be one of the gravest revelations since the beginning of the Russia affair – and a blow against the myth Trump has built ever since: that it was all a “witch hunt.”

Equally explosive is the section on the voter databases. As early as the summer of 2016, cybersecurity agencies had detected suspicious access to the servers of several states. Officially, it was later claimed that the threat had been limited. But Comey’s note proves that the FBI was already describing a systematic pattern at the time. Senator Dick Durbin, whose name appears in the note, had already called for an investigation into these attacks – and was dismissed. The fact that the note also mentions Clinton’s health and her planned strategy against Trump shows how closely politics and national security were intertwined. While the world speculated about Clinton’s coughing fits, the FBI was recording attacks on democratic institutions – and information about Trump’s possible debts in Moscow.

For years, James Comey had been Trump’s personal nemesis – the man who, in 2017, placed him at the center of the Russia affair, who refused to pledge loyalty, and was finally fired in an act of open contempt. Eight years later, on September 25, 2025, came the payback: a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted Comey – for making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. Trump celebrated the result as belated justice, speaking of the “restoration of the rule of law” and “revenge on the traitors.” Yet behind the judicial façade lies political intent. The charges against Comey rely on testimony from a 2020 Senate hearing that had never been deemed criminally relevant and lacked any substance – until Trump’s Department of Justice suddenly exhumed it. It was less a trial than a symbol: the president wanted to turn the man who once questioned him about Russia into the accused. His allies, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, openly spoke of “settling old scores.” For Trump, the indictment of Comey was not a legal proceeding – it was a personal triumph, the fulfillment of a promise he had carried for years: “He will pay.”

Nine years later, America once again stands at a point where history repeats itself – a president in the White House who abuses his power, and a bureaucracy that remains silent for too long. Comey’s note shows that the rupture between truth and politics began back then – and that it was never healed. It is a reminder that democracy is not destroyed in a single day but in moments of looking away. In one sentence, one line, one meeting that no one wants to remember. And sometimes, a single sheet of paper is enough to make all the silence of power audible.