The Justice Division indicted former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday after President Donald Trump publicly complained that Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi hadn’t secured prices towards him and a few of his different political adversaries.
Bondi confirmed the information on X, saying on social media that the indictment is emblematic of the Justice Division’s “commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people.”
Comey, whom Trump has lengthy accused of legal conduct associated to his FBI investigation into doable collusion between Russia and his marketing campaign through the 2016 election, was indicted on one rely of creating false statements and one rely of obstruction of justice.
The indictment, handed down by a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, issues congressional testimony Comey gave on Sept. 30, 2020.
It accuses him of mendacity when he stated he had not “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports” in testimony he gave in 2017 that was learn again to him by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in 2020. Comey confirmed that he stood by the 2017 testimony.
The indictment comes days earlier than a five-year statute of limitations was set to expire.
The “news reports” will not be specified within the indictment, however seem to narrate to reporting about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s charitable basis. Former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe has alleged that Comey instructed him he may leak details about then-ongoing investigations to the Journal, whereas Comey has lengthy stated he did no such factor.
The grand jury declined to indict Comey on an extra rely of creating false statements, nonetheless.
Prosecutors had alleged that Comey additionally lied when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) requested him throughout his 2020 testimony if he was conscious of a plan by Clinton to tie Trump to Russia to distract from issues about her use of a non-public e-mail server. Comey replied, “That doesn’t ring any bells with me.”
It’s not clear why the grand jury didn’t return an indictment on this rely.
In a video posted to social media, Comey said his innocence and welcomed the trial. Right here is everything of his remarks:
My household and I’ve identified for years that there are prices to standing as much as Donald Trump, however we couldn’t think about ourselves dwelling another means. We won’t stay on our knees, and also you shouldn’t both. Any person that I like dearly just lately stated that worry is the software of a tyrant, and he or she’s proper, however I’m not afraid, and I hope you’re not both. I hope as an alternative you might be engaged, you might be paying consideration and you’ll vote like your loved one nation relies upon upon it, which it does. My coronary heart is damaged for the Division of Justice, however I’ve nice confidence within the federal judicial system, and I’m harmless, so let’s have a trial and hold the religion.
Trump was ecstatic in regards to the information in a Reality Social submit.
“JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” he wrote Friday, including of Comey: “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.”
Trump continued to have a good time the indictment on Friday morning, debuting a brand new nickname: “James ‘Dirty Cop’ Comey.”
Because the president walked from the White Home to Marine One, he instructed reporters that the matter was certainly one of “justice” and never “retribution.”
“It wasn’t like, ‘Well, maybe,’ or ‘I don’t remember,’” Trump stated of Comey’s testimony, asserting that he had gotten caught in a lie.
Present FBI Director Kash Patel additionally praised the information, calling Comey’s “Russiagate” investigation “a disgraceful chapter in history we continue to investigate and expose.”
Trump, who fired Comey abruptly in 2017, made his prosecutorial expectations clear in a Sept. 20 Reality Social submit directed at Bondi.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote, arguing that Comey, together with different political enemies like Sen. Adam Schiff and Lawyer Basic Letitia James of New York, are “all guilty as hell” and that the DOJ has a “GREAT CASE.”
“JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” Trump wrote on the time.
Although Trump has lengthy condemned Comey for main a so-called “witch hunt” towards him, the outcomes of the Russia investigation ― which was taken over by particular counsel Robert Mueller after Trump fired Comey ― decided that Russia did try to affect the 2016 election. And whereas the investigation didn’t verify any collusion between Russia and the Trump marketing campaign, in keeping with officers concerned within the investigation, it additionally didn’t “exonerate” Trump, as he’s claimed.
Earlier this month, Trump pressured U.S. Lawyer for the Jap District of Virginia Erik Siebert out of his job as a result of he hadn’t secured indictments towards Comey and James.
Days earlier than Siebert handed in his resignation, sources instructed The New York Occasions that he had instructed his superiors on the Justice Division the instances towards Comey and James have been weak and unlikely to end in prices.
Trump changed Siebert with Lindsey Halligan, a White Home adviser and his former private lawyer with no prior expertise as a prosecutor. Whereas working for Trump, Halligan was given the duty of ridding the Smithsonian Establishment of “improper ideology.”
Trump praised her in his submit directed at Bondi, writing, “Lindsey Halligan is a really good lawyer, and likes you, a lot.”
