Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailGet our free Inside Washington emailThe Department of Justice indicted former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday, less than a week after the president made a highly unusual public demand that the attorney general launch swift prosecutions against his political enemies. “No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X on Thursday. “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 indictment, which does not appear to have been added to federal court systems yet, reportedly accuses Comey of making false statements and obstructing justice.The charges are thought to tie back to allegations that Comey lied under oath to Congress in 2020. During questioning in the Senate, Comey defended the truthfulness of prior testimony where he said he did not authorize leaking to the press about FBI investigations into President Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A former official who worked under Comey, Andrew McCabe, has claimed the director did in fact authorize him to leak to the press, a 2018 inspector general report found, though it also found McCabe had made false and misleading statements in the past. The Independent has contacted representatives of Comey for comment.Comey “obstructed a congressional investigation into the disclosure of sensitive information,” the Justice Department said in a statement on Thursday.“Comey stated that he did not authorize someone at the FBI to be an anonymous source,” the DOJ said. “According to the indictment that statement was false.”The charges, thought to be in the Eastern District of Virginia, come after U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert, an experienced federal prosecutor, resigned on Friday. The official reportedly left his post because of pressure to bring bring a mortgage fraud case against another enemy of Trump, New York Attorney General Letitia James, despite investigators failing to find evidence of wrongdoing.Siebert was then replaced on an acting basis with Lindsey Halligan, a Trump administration lawyer with no experience as a prosecutor. Halligan has previously worked as one of the president’s personal lawyers and oversaw a White House effort to review materials at the Smithsonian Institution. The current FBI Director, Kash Patel, hailed the indictment of Comey.“Nowhere was…politicization of law enforcement more blatant than during the Russiagate hoax, a disgraceful chapter in history we continue to investigate and expose,” he wrote on X. “Everyone, especially those in positions of power, will be held to account – no matter their perch. No one is above the law.”This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.
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Former FBI Director and Trump critic James Comey indicted on two charges
