President Donald Trump secured another win in his revenge tour after pressuring his attorney general to target a political enemy.
The Department of Justice announced Thursday that former FBI Director James Comey has been charged with obstructing a congressional investigation and making false statements.
“No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “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.”
Trump took a victory lap shortly after the indictment was made public.
“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 Truth Social. “He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation.”
The indictment alleges that Comey lied during a 2020 Senate hearing by stating that he had not authorized anyone in the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports. It also accused him of “corruptly endeavor[ing]” to influence the congressional proceeding by making false or misleading statements before the Senate committee.
The two-page document was signed by Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. Though the 35-year-old former beauty queen and insurance lawyer has zero prosecutorial experience, her resume includes stints as a personal lawyer for Trump.
Halligan was sworn in days after her predecessor Erik Seibert got pushed out by Trump for failing to bring mortgage fraud charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James. Seibert had also raised concerns about the Comey case.
“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,” Halligan said in a statement.
Comey was unfazed in a defiant video message posted to 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,” he said. “We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either.”
The former FBI chief said his heart was “broken” for the Justice Department, but expressed confidence in the federal judicial system.
“I’m innocent, so let’s have a trial and keep the faith,” he concluded.
Comey’s son-in-law Troy Edwards quit his job at the Justice Department as deputy chief of the National Security Section in protest over the indictment.
Edwards wrote in a one-sentence resignation letter addressed to Halligan that he was quitting “to uphold my oath to the Constitution and the country.”
The indictment came just days after Trump instructed Bondi in a bizarre social media post to go after his political enemies, including California Sen. Adam Schiff and the New York attorney general.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” he wrote. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
FBI Director Kash Patel described the indictment as another step toward fulfilling the agency’s promise of “full accountability.”
Patel’s statement appeared to confirm that the move was Trump’s revenge over Comey’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“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 said.
Trump has been hellbent on cracking down on his perceived foes since he returned to the White House in January.
Earlier this year, the administration launched a war on big law firms with ties to Democrats by revoking their security clearances, limiting their access to federal buildings, and severing their government contracts through a series of vengeful executive orders.
Trump has also ordered probes into former CIA Director John Brennan, who was a major figure in the Russian collusion investigation; former Homeland Security official Miles Taylor, who penned an anonymous op-ed about a “quiet resistance” within the first Trump administration; and former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Christopher Krebs, who defended the integrity of the 2020 election from Trump’s claims of fraud.
The White House, however, insists that Trump has not broken his Inauguration Day pledge to “never again” use the power of the state “to persecute political opponents.”
“We are not going to tolerate gaslighting from anyone in the media or from anyone on the other side who is trying to say that it’s the president who is weaponizing the DOJ,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday. “The president has every right to express how he feels about these people who literally campaigned on trying to put him in jail.”
