Ex-FBI director Comey indicted for false statement, obstruction
Former FBI Director James Comey has been charged with making a false statement and obstruction in a criminal case filed days after President Donald Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute him and other perceived political enemies.
The indictment makes Comey the first former senior government official involved in the discredited Russia collusion investigation in 2016 to face prosecution.
Trump has for years derided that investigation as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt”.
After Comey’s indictment, FBI Director Kash Patel took to X saying, “Today, your FBI took another step in its promise of full accountability.”
He said “previous corrupt leadership and their enablers weaponized federal law enforcement, damaging once proud insitutions and damaging public trust.”
“Nowhere was this politization of law enforcement more blatant than during the Russiagate hoax,” Patel continued.
Liberals and Democrats however claim that the indictment is the Trump administration’s way of weaponizing the Justice Department.
‘Rule of law’
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York has sharply criticized the Trump administration over Comey’s indictment.
“The indictment of James Comey is a disgraceful attack on the rule of law,” Jeffries said late Thursday.
“Donald Trump and his sycophants in the Department of Justice are completely and totally out of control, and have viciously weaponized the criminal justice system against their perceived adversaries.”
The two-count indictment consists of charges of Comey making a false statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee and obstructing a congressional proceeding.
Comey says in a video that he is innocent as he says “let’s have a trial and keep the faith.”
The former FBI director said in a video posted to Substack that he was not afraid and that he knew there would be “costs to standing up to Donald Trump.”
“My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I am innocent,” Comey said.
Son-in-law
James Comey’s son-in-law resigned as a federal prosecutor minutes after the former FBI director was indicted Thursday.
Troy Edwards quit his job “to uphold my oath to the Constitution and the country,” he wrote in a one-sentence resignation letter addressed to Lindsey Halligan, the newly appointed US Attorney in Virginia’s Eastern District, the office that charged Comey.
Edwards was the the deputy chief of the National Security Section, a prestigious role in a US attorney’s office that covers the Pentagon and CIA headquarters, handling some of the highest-profile espionage cases.
“Trump has made clear that he intends to turn our justice system into a weapon for punishing and silencing his critics,” said Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committe.
