James Comey indicted on federal obstruction, perjury charges
A federal grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday, approving charges for a top foe of the White House just days after President Trump called for his prosecution.
Comey was indicted on charges of making a false statement as well as another for obstruction of a congressional proceeding in connection with testimony he gave before the Senate in 2020.
The indictment makes Comey the first of Trump’s many perceived political enemies to face charges.
“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 wrote on X in a post that did not name Comey but appeared to reference the charges.
If convicted, Comey could face up to five years in prison, according to the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which brought the case. He is set to be arraigned on Oct. 9.
Court documents, however, show the grand jury was divided on some of the suggested charges, declining to indict Comey on a charge related to a question about his awareness of “approval of a plan” to use talk of Trump and Russian hackers interfering in U.S. elections as a means of distracting from her use of a private email server. Comey had replied, “That doesn’t ring any bells.”
An attorney for Comey did not immediately respond to request for comment.
According to the indictment, Comey obstructed Congress by lying to a Senate panel during his 2020 appearance for questioning on investigations into Trump in 2016.
“Comey stated that he did not authorize someone at the FBI to be an anonymous source. According to the indictment that statement was false,” the Justice Department said in a late Thursday press release.
Trump took to his social media platform over the weekend to issue a direct call to Bondi for an indictment of Comey, alongside other perceived political enemies of the president.
Trump immediately cheered the decision.
“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,” he wrote on his social media site.
Trump’s weekend pressure campaign on Bondi came after Erik Seibert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, stepped down rather than bring charges against another Trump adversary, New York Attorney General Letitia James, reportedly finding there was not enough evidence in the case to support allegations of mortgage fraud.
Siebert was also overseeing the Comey case, which was then also handed over to Lindsey Halligan, who was tapped as an interim replacement. Halligan, a White House staffer who practiced insurance law before she joined his criminal defense team in 2022, has never tried a federal case. Her signature is listed on the indictment for Comey.
Thursday’s indictment quickly set off alarm bells among Democrats and other Trump critics who slammed the move as a politically motivated effort to go after the president’s enemies.
“Donald Trump has made clear that he intends to turn our justice system into a weapon for punishing and silencing his critics,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.
Trump has long called for charges against Comey, whom he blames for the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia in the 2016 contest — something he has deemed a “witch hunt.”
Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017 while the bureau’s investigation was still ongoing, leading to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump and Comey have had an adversarial relationship ever since, with Trump calling Comey a “dirty cop” and said he and other FBI leaders were “scum.”
The president earlier this year alleged an Instagram post from Comey that featured seashells on a beach arranged to form the numbers “8647” was a call for his assassination. Stemming from the hospitality industry, “86” can refer to either the need to cut off a client or unlist a menu item.
Comey, who earned the ire of Democrats in 2016 with his handling of an investigation into then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s email server, endorsed former President Biden in the 2020 election and backed former Vice President Harris in the 2024 race against Trump.
The focus on Comey stems from his congressional testimony on Sept. 30, 2020, with the charges coming just days ahead of the five-year statute of limitations on such matters.
During that hearing, Comey was asked about whether he ever authorized leaks about the investigation into Trump — something the director denied.
FBI Director Kash Patel, who worked on a review of the 2016 investigation as a staffer on the House Intelligence Committee, said Comey’s conduct reflected “previous corrupt leadership and their enablers [who] weaponized federal law enforcement.”
“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,” he wrote in a post on X that likewise did not name Comey.
“Everyone, especially those in positions of power, will be held to account – no matter their perch.”
FBI Director Kash Patel, who worked on a review of the 2016 investigation as a staffer on the House Intelligence Committee, said Comey’s conduct reflected “previous corrupt leadership and their enablers [who] weaponized federal law enforcement.”
While he initially retained Comey as FBI director, Trump later removed him from his post in 2019.
Beyond the actions against Comey, the Justice Department also fired his daughter, Maurene Comey, a highly respected prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. The younger Comey has since sued, alleging her firing was in part carried out due to her connection to her father.
Updated at 8:21 p.m. EDT
Ella Lee contributed to this story.