‘I’m innocent’, says ex-FBI boss Comey after indictment
Andrew Goudsward and Sarah N. Lynch |
Former FBI director James Comey has been indicted on criminal charges of false statements and obstruction in an escalation of President Donald Trump’s campaign to seek retribution against people who have investigated or criticised him.
If convicted, Comey could face up to five years in prison. He faces charges of making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation.
Comey, in a video posted on Instagram, said: “My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I’m innocent. So, let’s have a trial and keep the faith.”
Trump has threatened to imprison his political rivals since he first ran for president in 2015, but Thursday’s indictment marks the first time his administration has succeeded in securing a grand jury indictment against one of them. Trump’s Justice Department is also investigating other antagonists including New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump, who has pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey and other critics, celebrated the news. “JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” he wrote on social media. “He has been so bad for our Country, for so long.”
Trump fired Comey in 2017, early in his first term in office. He has since regularly assailed Comey’s handling of the FBI investigation that detailed contacts between Russians and Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Since Trump returned to office last January, his Justice Department has been examining Comey’s 2020 testimony when he addressed Republican criticisms of the Russia investigation and denied that he had authorised disclosures of sensitive information to the news media.
The indictment alleges that Comey misled Congress by claiming he had not authorised anyone else to be an anonymous source in news reporting about an FBI investigation.
Trump’s administration has carried out a sweeping campaign to remake the Justice Department, which the president alleges was used as a political weapon when he left office in 2021. Trump faced federal charges of mishandling classified documents and trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Both cases have been dropped.
The effort to target Comey had been viewed with scepticism in the Eastern District of Virginia, the US attorney’s office handling the case.
After the district’s top federal prosecutor, Erik Siebert, resigned last week, others in the office told his successor, Lindsey Halligan, that charges should not be filed due to a lack of evidence, according to a source.
Comey’s son-in-law, Troy Edwards, resigned from his position as a senior national security prosecutor following the news on Thursday, according to a copy of his resignation letter seen by Reuters.
Comey’s eldest daughter, Maureen Comey, was fired from her job as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan in July. She filed a lawsuit earlier this month, with her lawyers saying in the complaint that she was fired “solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey.”
Trump and Comey have had an acrimonious relationship since the start of the president’s first term. Trump fired him as FBI director days after Comey publicly confirmed the president was under investigation over his election campaign’s connections to Russia. Comey then emerged as a prominent critic of the president, calling him “morally unfit” for office.
Comey’s firing led to the appointment of another former FBI chief, Robert Mueller, being appointed as a special counsel to take charge of the Russia probe, which unearthed numerous contacts between the campaign and Russian officials, but concluded that there was not enough evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy.
The Justice Department’s internal watchdog in a 2019 report faulted Comey for asking a friend to give memos detailing Comey’s one-on-one interactions with Trump to the New York Times.
The Justice Department during Trump’s first term declined to pursue criminal charges against Comey.
Reuters
