2 FBI Officials, Once Key Advisers to Comey, Leave the Bureau

WASHINGTON — Two top FBI aides who worked alongside former Director James Comey as he navigated one of the most politically tumultuous periods in the bureau’s history resigned Friday.

One of them, James A. Baker, served as the FBI’s top lawyer until December when he was reassigned as the new director, Christopher A. Wray, began installing his own advisers. Baker had been investigated by the Justice Department on suspicion of sharing classified information with reporters. He has not been charged.

The other aide, Lisa Page, advised Comey and his deputy, Andrew G. McCabe, on a range of legal issues. She was assailed by conservatives after texts that she had exchanged with the agent overseeing the investigation into links between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia were made public. In the messages, they expressed anti-Trump views but took aim at Hillary Clinton and other political figures as well.

The decisions by Baker and Page to leave the bureau were unrelated. Baker said that he would be joining the Brookings Institution to write for Lawfare, its blog focused on national security law.

“I love the FBI,” he said. “I have tremendous respect for the bureau — the FBI was great, is great and will be great.”

Comey relied heavily on Baker and Page as he navigated the politically charged investigations into Clinton’s private email server and Trump’s campaign. After the president pressed Comey to say publicly that he was not under investigation, Baker cautioned against it because he anticipated that the FBI would eventually have to examine Trump’s ties to Russia.

The president abruptly fired Comey a year ago and has cited a variety of rationales. His lawyer Rudy Giuliani said this week that Comey was ousted because he declined to say publicly that Trump was not under scrutiny at the time in the Russia investigation.

Page advised FBI leadership on two of Comey’s most consequential decisions in the investigation into Clinton: his move to hold a news conference to announce that the bureau was recommending that she face no charges, and his disclosure to Congress days before the election that the FBI had reopened the inquiry.

House Republicans have also accused Baker of being the source of the leaks about a salacious dossier of information about Trump compiled by a former British spy.

Comey said in a statement that Baker “represents the best of the Department of Justice and the FBI.”

“He has protected the country and the rule of law throughout his career and leaves an inspiring legacy of service,” Comey said. “He is what we should all hope our kids become, a person of integrity.”