FBI to investigate Comey’s ‘covert operation’ deploying female ‘honey pots’ to target Trump’s 2016 campaign

The FBI’s leadership has initiated an investigation into the origins of an operation carried out nearly a decade ago, in which the agency deployed two female undercover agents to infiltrate Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

This covert operation, which was reportedly launched in 2015 under the direction of then-FBI Director James B. Comey, was brought to light by a whistleblower who provided a protected disclosure to the House Judiciary Committee last year. The Washington Times first reported on this revelation in October.

Within intelligence circles, the term “honeypot” is commonly used to describe an undercover agent—often a woman—who gains a target’s trust through romantic or sexual pretense to extract sensitive information.

According to the whistleblower, two female FBI undercover agents were embedded within Trump’s 2016 campaign and were specifically instructed to operate as “honeypots” while traveling with the candidate and his team. The FBI, now under the leadership of Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, is actively working to identify those operatives who were involved in the operation during Comey’s tenure. The agency declined to comment on the matter.

The whistleblower disclosure, reviewed by The Times, suggests that this initiative was separate from Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s later counterintelligence probe that sought to investigate unproven allegations of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Instead, the early covert investigation, described as a criminal probe, was reportedly focused on Trump and his associates without a clear criminal predicate.

The Washington Times notes Trump formally announced his candidacy on June 16, 2015, nearly a year before Crossfire Hurricane was officially launched. The whistleblower, who had personal knowledge of the situation, asserted that Comey directly ordered and oversaw the investigation. Rather than targeting a specific crime, the probe appeared to be an effort to uncover any potentially incriminating information.

The operation was reportedly concealed from Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, who had conducted a separate review of the FBI’s handling of the Trump campaign investigation. According to the disclosure, Comey avoided documenting the investigation in Sentinel, the FBI’s official case management system, or any other formal FBI records, despite the agency having secure mechanisms for handling sensitive cases.

The whistleblower also suggested that this secretive inquiry could point to institutional bias within the FBI against Trump. However, there is no indication that any findings from the investigation were shared with Trump’s legal defense team.

The operation was ultimately shut down after a major news outlet acquired a photograph of one of the undercover agents and prepared to publish it. The FBI’s press office reportedly intervened, telling the publication that revealing the image could endanger the individual, who was claimed to be an informant. In reality, the photograph was of an undercover FBI employee.