Federal prosecutors in Virginia convinced a grand jury to criminally indict former FBI Director James Comey Thursday on charges of making a false statement and obstruction of proceedings, seemingly making good on President Donald Trump’s years-long threat to leverage the U.S. justice system against his perceived political enemies.
The two-count indictment formally accused a man with a lengthy history in the upper echelons of U.S. law enforcement of lying and getting in the way of a federal investigation. It’s a charge that dates back to his Sept. 30, 2020, testimony before Congress about whether he leaked information to journalists about FBI investigations into Trump and Hillary Clinton’s competing presidential campaigns in 2016.
But when the documents were actually posted in court, it became clear that the dozen-plus grand jurors refused to indict Comey on a third count of the proposed indictment: an accusation of another lie relating to the Trump-Russia ordeal.
This means jurors were convinced that Comey was untruthful when he testified that he hadn’t “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports.” But jurors would not agree with a second accusation that Comey lied about not remembering “being taught” of Hillary Clinton’s “approval of a plan” to draw attention to Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
It was unclear whether they believed Comey was being truthful or if they would not go along with an accusation that included a typo.
On Truth Social, Trump announced “JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” and called Comey “one of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to.”
The newly appointed prosecutor leading the Department of Justice office in eastern Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, presented the case to the grand jury herself in the Alexandria federal courthouse, according to her office — a rare event that only draws more scrutiny to the case, given her close relationship with the president.
Federal prosecutors, who are overseen by a trusted Trump aide recently appointed to lead the Justice Department effort, raced to beat a Sept. 30 deadline, when a five-year statute of limitations was set to run out.
“No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a post on X after news of the indictment broke. “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.”
The investigation has been widely condemned by legal scholars and former DOJ officials who decried it as White House-led weaponization of law-enforcement powers. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Trump claimed, “I think I’d be allowed to get involved if I want — but I don’t really choose to do so.”
Comey’s defense attorney did not immediately provide a comment.
Comey himself posted a short video on the social media site Bluesky in which he said, “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.”
“Somebody that I love dearly recently said that ‘fear is the tool of a tyrant.’ And she’s right. But I’m not afraid,” he said, urging people to “vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does.”
“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.”
In a statement, Halligan said, “The charges as alleged in this case represent a breach of the public trust at an extraordinary level … the balance of power is a bedrock principal (sic) of our democracy, and it relies upon accountability and a forthright presentation of facts from executive leadership to congressional oversight. Any intent to avoid, evade, prevent, or obstruct compliance is a violation of professional responsibility and, most importantly, the law.”
A late-evening statement from DOJ headquarters clarified that Comey was being charged with violating 18 U.S. Code § 1505, which relates to anyone who “falsifies … oral testimony,” and 18 U.S. Code § 1001, which applies to anyone who “knowingly and willfully … makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement.”
“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 DOJ stated.
However, Halligan also failed to convince jurors to criminally indict Comey over his interaction with Sen. Lindsey Graham five years ago. Back then, Graham asked Comey if he remembered whether U.S. intelligence officials warned the FBI that “the Clinton campaign was going to create a scandal regarding Trump and Russia” to distract from criticism about her private email server. Comey responded, “That doesn’t ring any bells with me,” which the senator called “a pretty stunning thing.”
The entire investigation seemingly stems from Trump’s personal grudge against Comey, who, as FBI director during Trump’s first presidential administration, stood up when the president pressured him to drop a criminal investigation into former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Comey was fired nearly halfway through his decade-long term set by Congress.
What started as menacing social media posts — with Trump writing, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” — quickly morphed into explicit threats.
“WOW, Comey is a leaker!” Trump wrote in June 2017, followed by a claim the next month that “James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media. That is so illegal!”
By the end of his first term, Trump regularly referred to “Comey & the gang of treasonous thugs” and said the former FBI director “should be tried for treason.”
The calls for revenge reached their peak on Sept. 20, when Trump publicly told Bondi that Comey and others were “guilty as hell,” while complaining that his appointed interim U.S. attorney in Eastern Virginia, Erik Siebert — who oversaw an investigation that went nowhere — “was never going to do his job.”
Trump later placed Halligan, a Trump-run Miss USA beauty pageant contestant who became his personal defense lawyer and later a White House staffer, in charge of that office.
Halligan worked fast, redirecting the efforts from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia to put together a grand jury to indict Comey.