Rep. Jason Chaffetz formally requests Comey's 'memoranda, notes, summaries, and recordings' on Trump


On Tuesday evening, The New York Times and other major news organizations reported that, according to detailed notes former FBI Director James Comey kept on his conversations with President Trump, Trump asked him to drop the FBI's investigation of Michael Flynn, a day after Flynn resigned under pressure because of his communications with Russia's ambassador. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) quickly said he wanted to see those memos and had his "subpoena pen ready," and on Tuesday night, he made it official.
In a letter to acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Chaffetz said that if the reports are true, "these memoranda raise questions as to whether the president attempted to influence or impede the FBI's investigation as it relates to Lt. Gen. Flynn. So the committee can consider that question, and others, provide, no later than May 24, 2017, all memoranda, notes, summaries, and recordings referring or relating to any communications between Comey and the president."
The Times doesn't claim to have seen the memos, but said a Comey "associate" read parts of it, including Comey's recollection that Trump told him: "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. ... He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." Political commentator Evan Siegfried theorizes that FBI associates didn't turn over the unclassified memos to the news media for this very reason:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Or, as an active duty FBI agent put it to The Daily Beast, firing Comey was a "big gamble. You've got to kill him, metaphorically. You can't just wound him."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
5 hilariously sparse cartoons about further DOGE cuts
Cartoons Artists take on free audits, report cards, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Following the Tea Horse Road in China
The Week Recommends This network of roads and trails served as vital trading routes
By The Week UK Published
-
Crossword: March 30, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
The JFK files: the truth at last?
In The Spotlight More than 64,000 previously classified documents relating the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released by the Trump administration
By The Week Staff Published
-
Supreme Court upholds 'ghost gun' restrictions
Speed Read Ghost guns can be regulated like other firearms
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump sets 25% tariffs on auto imports
Speed Read The White House says the move will increase domestic manufacturing. But the steep import taxes could also harm the US auto industry.
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump allies urge White House to admit chat blunder
Speed Read Even pro-Trump figures are criticizing The White House's handling of the Signal scandal
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Waltz takes blame for texts amid calls for Hegseth ouster
Speed Read Democrats are calling for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Michael Waltz to step down
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Judge: Nazis treated better than Trump deportees
speed read U.S. District Judge James Boasberg reaffirmed his order barring President Donald Trump from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US officials share war plans with journalist in group chat
Speed Read Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a Signal conversation about striking Yemen
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Canada's Mark Carney calls snap election
speed read Voters will go to the polls on April 28 to pick a new government
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published