James Comey Indicted for Alleged Lying to Congress, Obstruction of Justice

Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted on criminal charges related to allegations that he lied to Congress during testimony in 2020 about whether he authorized a leak of information.

Comey is facing one count of false statements and one count of obstruction of justice, according to a release from the Department of Justice.

"No one is above the law. Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

President Trump reacted gleefully to the indictment in a statement shared to Truth Social.

"JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI."

"Today he was indicted by a Grand Jury on two felony counts for various illegal and unlawful acts. He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Comey’s indictment in Virginia federal court comes just days before the statute of limitations for the perjury charge was set to run out. The charges come five years after Comey testified on September 30, 2020, before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he never authorized anyone at the FBI to leak information to the press related to the investigations of either possible collusion between Trump and Russia or Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized email system.

During the hearing, Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) asked Comey whether he had authorized leaks related to either investigation. Comey reiterated what he said in 2017 congressional testimony, that he had not.

Cruz argued that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe had said Comey authorized at least one such disclosure, related to the Clinton investigation. But the Justice Department inspector general found in 2018 that McCabe had “lacked candor when he told Comey, or made statements that led Comey to believe, that McCabe had not authorized the disclosure and did not know who did.”

The charges also center in part on an October 2016 New York Times report, “Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia.”

The Times article was in response to reporting in Slate that Trump had established a communications back channel with the Kremlin, involving servers at Trump Tower in Manhattan and Alfa Bank, one of Russia's largest financial institutions.

Hours after the Slate article was published, the Times report related the FBI’s conclusion that the back-channel claim was unfounded. The report also detailed that the bureau’s counterintelligence investigation of Russia’s malign activities in connection with the 2016 campaign were not linked to Trump and his campaign.

Special counsel John Durham probed the leaks to the Times in connection with the story as an unauthorized public disclosure (UPD) of classified information.

The February 2020 closing memorandum for the probe, obtained by veteran journalist Catherine Herridge, found there were two major government sources for the story: James Baker, FBI general counsel and a close adviser to Comey, and FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki. Baker told investigators that he was “under the belief” that he was "ultimately instructed and authorized to [provide information to the Times] by then FBI Director James Comey."

However, Baker did not claim that Comey gave him a direct order. "Baker indicated that FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki instructed him (Baker) to disclose the information to the NYT, and Baker understood Rybicki was conveying this instruction and authorization from Comey."

Durham recommended “NO prosecution of Baker or anyone else for this UPD.”

In recent weeks, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert declined to bring that case, and a case against New York Attorney General Letitia James. President Trump fired Siebert last week and replaced him with Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan.

The prosecutors who were working the Comey investigation had reportedly given Halligan a memo detailing why the case is too weak to charge.

Trump, however, wrote in a Truth Social post addressed to Bondi on Saturday that Comey, James, and Senator Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) are "all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to get done."

"Then we almost put in a Democrat supported U.S. Attorney, in Virginia, with a really bad Republican past. A Woke RINO, who was never going to do his job," Trump wrote, referring to Siebert.

"That’s why two of the worst Dem Senators PUSHED him so hard. He even lied to the media and said he quit, and that we had no case," wrote Trump.

"No, I fired him, and there is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so. Lindsey Halligan is a really good lawyer, and likes you, a lot. We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!! President DJT."

Trump fired Comey during his first term over the intelligence community's role in perpetrating false claims of collusion between Trump and Russia.

Comey has become an outspoken opponent of Trump and recently took heat for a since-deleted Instagram post calling for violence against Trump. The Trump administration subsequently launched a Secret Service investigation into Comey following conservative outcry over the post.

The case against Comey will be a test of whether Trump's Justice Department will be able to successfully prosecute the president's political opponents. The Trump administration has launched several investigations into Trump's political opponents in order to build criminal cases against them.

Trump's heavy-handed approach to going after his political opponents comes after the Biden administration pursued multiple criminal cases against Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign. Democratic prosecutors Alvin Bragg in Manhattan and Fani Willis in Fulton County, Ga., took a similar approach and prosecuted Trump in 2023 and 2024.

FBI Director Kash Patel addressed Comey's indictment in a statement, portraying it as a necessary tool of accountability for the bureau's past corruption and weaponization. As a congressional staffer, Patel played a central role in discrediting false claims of collusion between Trump and Russia, making him a star of the MAGA movement.

"Today, your FBI took another step in its promise of full accountability. For far too long, previous corrupt leadership and their enablers weaponized federal law enforcement, damaging once proud institutions and severely eroding public trust. Every day, we continue the fight to earn that trust back, and under my leadership, this FBI will confront the problem head-on," Patel said.

https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1971347212811763992

"Nowhere was this politicization of law enforcement more blatant than during the Russiagate hoax, a disgraceful chapter in history we continue to investigate and expose."

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino similarly framed Comey's indictment as part of the Trump administration keeping its promises.

"When Director Patel and I took on our leadership positions in the FBI we promised the American people accountability. Promises matter," Bongino said.

Democratic lawmakers uniformly condemned the indictment as an abuse of power meant to punish one of Trump's political enemies.

"A sad, sad day for our justice system. When a staunchly Republican U.S. Attorney couldn’t even find a credible case against James Comey, Trump pushed him out and found someone who would," Senator Mark Warner (D., Va.) said on X.

Trump will stop at nothing to punish political enemies."

The case is set to take place in Alexandria, Virginia in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Biden-appointed judge Michael Nachmanoff has been assigned the case for the time being.