It appears there is yet another problem with the Department of Justice’s so-far-disastrous case against former FBI Director James Comey.

Prosecutors allege that Comey lied during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020, when he denied that he had authorized someone “at the FBI” to serve as an anonymous source to news outlets about the bureau’s probe into Hillary Clinton.

That someone has been identified as attorney Dan Richman. But a closer look at a set of documents detailing Richman’s stint at the FBI showed that he wasn’t actually working there during any of the communications the government cited as leaks.

Lawfare reviewed a set of documents procured via a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the right-wing rag the Daily Caller, which sought “all records, documents, and communications pertaining to Daniel Richman, a Special Government Employee hired by former FBI Director James Comey.” The documents produced by the government—though likely incomplete—paint a stunning alibi for Richman, the man at the center of one of the government’s flimsiest claims.

According to the documents, Richman’s first term working for the FBI was between June 30, 2015, and June 30, 2016. He served unpaid on a part-time to intermittent basis advising senior FBI leadership about a range of different issues, but specifically the use of encryption to evade law enforcement.

A request to reappoint Richman was not approved until December 2016. Government records indicate that he neglected to sign his reappointment papers. Included with the FOIA materials was one FBI official’s handwritten note stating: “Doc drawn up + sent to OGC for Richman signature. Never signed. Never officially reappointed after June 2016.”

However, internal FBI emails indicated that Richman may have served a second term anyway—but only for a short period of time, resigning on February 7, 2017.

All of the evidence prosecutors have cited to demonstrate that Comey instructed an FBI lackey—in this case Richman—to speak anonymously to the press took place outside of the periods when Richman was actually employed by the bureau.