“Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted Thursday, days after President Donald Trump publicly said that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi should prosecute him and two other political adversaries,” reports NBC News.
One lawyer not involved in the case said that the case against Comey was weak — “the weakest wet fart of a case” — and would likely not lead to a conviction. As he put it, the indictment resulted from a “horrifying and corrupt” pressure on prosecutors to bring the case, which was brought “because the president barked an order for DOJ to go after” Comey, even though “this is about the weakest wet fart of a case they could have done.”
Because Comey is probably innocent, federal prosecutors had previously refused to bring the case against Comey, including President Trump’s own appointee, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert. Siebert was forced to resign and was replaced by Lindsey Halligan, one of President Trump’s former defense attorneys, who has no prosecutorial experience at all.
As NBC explains, the indictment against Comey
includes two counts: making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. Comey has denied any wrongdoing.
The charges stem from testimony Comey gave on Sept. 30, 2020, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Asked by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about testimony he gave in 2017 asserting that he did not authorize leaking information regarding the FBI’s investigations into then-President Donald Trump or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Comey said, “I stand by the testimony.”
Comey’s deputy, Andrew McCabe, has said that Comey authorized him to leak information to the press, according to a 2018 Justice Department inspector general’s report. But the report also found that McCabe made multiple false or misleading statements.
The statute of limitations for the charges was set to expire Tuesday. Comey could face a maximum of five years in prison if convicted.
Trump celebrated the indictment.
“JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey,” Trump said in a social Truth Social post.
Bondi added in a statement that the 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 denied the charges against him in a video posted on Instagram.
“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either,” Comey said.
“My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system. I’m innocent, so let’s have a trial and keep the faith,” he added.
