Former FBI Director James Comey has been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.

On September 25, a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted former FBI Director James Comey. This came days after President Donald Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to hold Comey accountable, according to CNBC.

Comey is accused of lying during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 30, 2020. The former FBI director denied authorizing anyone in his agency to serve as an anonymous source in news reports related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails when she was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.

"The charges brought in this case represent an extraordinary breach of the public trust," said Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan, whose office will prosecute two felony charges against Comey.

On the subject: The FBI caught 'border king' Tom Homan taking a bribe, but the case was hushed up.

Halligan was appointed to the position by Trump earlier this week after her predecessor declined to seek an indictment against Comey.

In an Instagram video recorded after his arraignment in federal court in Alexandria, where he is scheduled to appear on October 9, Comey said: "I'm not afraid."

"My family and I have known for years that there's a price to pay for standing up to Donald Trump," Comey said in the video. "But we can't imagine life any other way. We won't live on our knees—and neither should you."

 

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Posted by James Comey (@comey)

"A man I deeply love recently said that fear is a tyrant's weapon, and he's right," Comey concluded. "But I'm not afraid, and I hope you're not either. I hope you'll act, watch closely, and vote as if your beloved country depends on it—because it does. My heart is broken by what's happening at the Justice Department, but I have complete confidence in the federal judiciary."

"Besides, I'm innocent. So let's have a trial and keep the faith," he concluded.

Comey's lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, told CNBC: "Jim Comey completely denies the charges brought against him today. We expect to prove his innocence in court."

Fitzgerald is a longtime friend of Comey's. Like Comey, he is a former high-ranking federal prosecutor.

Federal prosecutors asked a grand jury to indict Comey on two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice, according to court documents.

However, the investigative documents state that the grand jury did not indict on one of the counts of false statements because more than twelve jurors did not agree to indict on the first count.

The unincriminated point concerned Comey's response to a question from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham during a September 2020 hearing. Graham then asked if Comey recalled being informed of "Plan 1's endorsement of Person 2 and the 2016 presidential election." Comey denied such knowledge.

Person 1 is former Secretary of State Clinton, who was the Democratic presidential nominee. Person 2 is Trump, the Republican nominee.

The Trump plan allegedly involved Clinton's alleged attempts to link Trump to Russia to deflect attention from her email scandal.

"I don't believe it's possible that Comey didn't know about the allegations against Clinton, who allegedly orchestrated all of this," Graham told Fox News on September 25.

The five-year statute of limitations on the grand jury's perjury charge over Comey's testimony that he did not authorize leaks about the Clinton investigation was set to expire next week.

If found guilty, Komi faces a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison.

Federal criminal sentences are often lower than the maximum possible sentence due to federal sentencing guidelines.

The indictment came five days after Trump publicly complained to Attorney General Pam Bondi that "nothing is being done" against Comey and other alleged enemies of the president. Trump declared these people "guilty as hell."

The American leader expressed delight at Comey's indictment in his post on Truth Social: "JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst men our country has ever known is James Comey, the former corrupt head of the FBI. He has done harm to our country for so long and is now beginning to be held accountable for his crimes against the nation. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN."

Bondi, without naming Comey, commented on the news of the indictment: "No one is above the law," she wrote in a post on Platform X.

"Today's indictment reflects this Department of Justice's commitment to holding accountable those who abuse their power to deceive the American people," Bondi added. "We will follow the facts of this case."

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel wrote in a post on X: "Today, your FBI took another step toward fulfilling its promise of full accountability."

Halligan, 36, has no experience as a prosecutor but has previously represented Trump in court cases.

She replaced Eric Siebert as interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Siebert was tasked with investigating Comey and another Trump opponent, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed a civil lawsuit against the president alleging corporate fraud.

However, Siebert's investigation into James's mortgage fraud allegations did not yield sufficient evidence to charge her.

Zibert, however, expressed doubts about the criminal case against Komi.

"I want him gone," Trump recently said of Siebert.

Trump has long expressed disdain for Comey, whom he fired in May 2017, during his first term as president.

This summer, Comey's daughter, Maureen Comey, was fired from her position as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan and later sued the Justice Department, claiming it was retaliation for her being the daughter of a former FBI director.

Maureen Comey's work as a prosecutor involved in the cases of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Sean Combs, as well as the high-profile case against gynecologist Robert Hadden for sexually assaulting patients.

Upon leaving office, Maureen Comey wrote: "Fear is a tyrant's tool, used to suppress independent thought. Instead of fear, let this moment light the fire that already burns in the heart of this place. The fire of righteous indignation against the abuses of power. The fire of a commitment to seeking justice for victims. The fire of a devotion to truth above all else."

Maureen Comey is one of several federal employees fired by the Trump administration who have filed lawsuits seeking reinstatement or back pay, challenging the sweeping firing of FBI agents and other federal prosecutors without notice and due process.

Comey's son-in-law, Troy Edwards, worked in the Justice Department (in the U.S. Attorney's office) and resigned after his father-in-law was indicted. He was deputy chief of the National Security Division in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Edwards wrote that he was doing this "as a sign of my commitment to the Constitution and my country."

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Virginia Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, condemned Comey's indictment.

"Donald Trump has made clear that he intends to turn our justice system into a tool to punish and silence his critics," Warner said, noting the circumstances of Siebert's departure. "Such an intervention is a dangerous abuse of power."

Our system depends on prosecutors making decisions based on evidence and the law, not on the personal grievances of a politician seeking to settle a score.

By removing a respected independent prosecutor and replacing him with a partisan one, Trump is undermining one of the nation's most important federal prosecutorial offices and eroding the rule of law itself.

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