Ex-FBI Director James Comey indicted on 2 counts

Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted on two of three counts sought by prosecutors — one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice, the Department of Justice said.

Trump on Thursday hailed the indictment as “JUSTICE FOR AMERICA!”

The Department of Justice said the indictment claims Comey “obstructed a congressional investigation into the disclosure of sensitive information in violation of 18 USC 1505. The indictment also alleges that Comey made a false statement in violation of 18 USC 1001. Comey stated that he did not authorize someone at the FBI to be an anonymous source. According to the indictment that statement was false.”

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“No one is above the law,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “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.”

Comey said in a video posted to social media that he’s “innocent, and let’s have a trial.” He also said “there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way.”

The indictment just days after President Donald Trump issued a public demand for his Justice Department to act “now” to bring prosecutions against Comey and other political foes.

The charges were brought by the Eastern District of Virginia, where a former Trump attorney, Lindsay Halligan, recently replaced Erik Siebert, who sources say expressed doubts about prosecuting the president’s political foes.

Comey was fired months into Trump’s first administration and has long been a top target for Trump supporters seeking retribution. Comey was singled out by name in a Saturday social media post in which Trump complained directly to Bondi that she had not yet brought charges against him.

The following evening, Trump said in a Truth Social post aimed at the attorney general that department investigations had not resulted in prosecutions. He said he would nominate Halligan, a White House aide, to serve as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. She does not have experience as a federal prosecutor.

Trump has for years railed against both a finding by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia preferred him to Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election and the criminal investigation that tried to determine whether his campaign had conspired with Moscow to sway the outcome of that race. Prosecutors led by special counsel Robert Mueller did not establish that Trump or his associates criminally colluded with Russia, but they did find that Trump’s campaign had welcomed Moscow’s assistance.

Trump has seized on the fact that Mueller’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign and the Kremlin colluded, and that there were significant errors and omissions made by the FBI in wiretap applications, to claim vindication. A yearslong investigation into potential misconduct during the Russia investigation, was conducted by a different special counsel, John Durham. That produced three criminal cases, including against an FBI lawyer, but not against senior government officials.

The criminal case against Comey does not concern the substance of the Russia investigation. Rather, it accuses him of having lied to a Senate committee in his 2020 appearance when he said he never authorized anyone to serve as an anonymous source to a reporter about the investigation.

Trump’s administration is trying to cast the Russia investigation as the outgrowth of an effort under Democratic President Barack Obama to overhype Moscow’s interference in the election and to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s victory.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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