Getty Comey associate has been in contact with Senate Judiciary about memos

Dan Richman, a longtime friend and adviser to former FBI director James Comey, has been in contact with the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding a series of memos that Comey authored about his private conversations with President Donald Trump from January through April.

A source familiar with the discussions says Richman connected with the Senate panel via the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading a high-profile investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller's probe is also exploring whether any associates of Trump colluded with Russians during the campaign.

The source says the matter will be addressed on Monday.


In bombshell testimony to the Senate intelligence committee on Thursday, Comey identified Richman — a Columbia University law professor — as the person who provided the content of his memos to The New York Times shortly after Trump fired Comey last month.

Comey testified Thursday that a few days after he was fired -- and after a series of shifting explanations by the president and his team about the rationale for his ouster — he encouraged Richman to detail his memos to the press.

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"My judgement was, I need to get that out into the public square," Comey said. "I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. Didn't do it myself for a variety of reasons. I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel."

The memos, which Comey wrote immediately after his meetings with Trump, describe his discomfort with the president's repeated questions about the Russia probe. And he also recounted a February meeting in the Oval Office in which he said Trump appeared to ask him to end a related investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is one of four congressional panels seeking copies of Comey's memos. The panel's chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and ranking Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein sent a letter to Richman on Thursday requesting the memos by Friday. It's unclear if he has copies of the memos, whether he's already turned them over to Mueller or whether he'll be able to provide them to lawmakers.

Comey confirmed he'd turned over his own copies of the memos to Mueller, but he said during testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee this week he'd be comfortable if senators obtained their own copies from Richman or elsewhere.