{"id":169379,"date":"2025-09-25T23:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T23:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/169379\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T23:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T23:22:09","slug":"former-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/169379\/","title":{"rendered":"Former FBI Director James Comey indicted"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted by a federal grand jury, an extraordinary escalation in President Donald Trump\u2019s effort to prosecute his political enemies.\n <\/p>\n

\n Comey, a longtime adversary of the president, is now the first senior government official to face federal charges in one of Trump\u2019s largest grievances: the 2016 investigation into whether his first presidential campaign colluded with Russia.\n <\/p>\n

\n He has been charged with giving false statements and obstruction of a congressional proceeding, the Justice Department said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X<\/a>, \u201cNo one is above the law.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cToday\u2019s indictment reflects this Department of Justice\u2019s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people,\u201d Bondi wrote. \u201cWe will follow the facts in this case.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The indictment Thursday evening comes as CNN previously reported about concerns Bondi and prosecutors have had about the case.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bondi is facing pressure from Trump, who is demanding his political enemies face criminal charges as he once did. But attorneys inside the Eastern District of Virginia recently wrote a memo detailing their reservations over seeking the indictment, ABC News first reported.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bondi has concerns about the case, which focuses on whether Comey made false statements during congressional testimony involving the 2016 investigation into Russian interference in the US presidential election, according to a person familiar with her thinking, though she believes it would be possible to bring an indictment.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the White House Thursday, Trump said, \u201cThey\u2019re going to make a determination. I\u2019m not making that determination. I think I\u2019d be allowed to get involved if I want, but I don\u2019t really choose to do so.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Comey, however, is a \u201cbad person,\u201d the president added.\n <\/p>\n

\n The attorney general had dinner at the White House Rose Garden with Trump and others Wednesday evening<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

\n Lindsey Halligan, Trump\u2019s former personal attorney and the new top prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, has been spotted at the Justice Department twice this week, where sources say she was part of conversations over whether to charge Comey. Halligan has also had questions about the case, according to a source briefed on the discussions.\n <\/p>\n

\n Publicly and privately, Trump has complained that prosecutors were willing to bring numerous criminal cases against him while he was out of office, noting that in those instances he was charged with whatever they had at the time, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The person added that Trump has repeatedly said that the Justice Department should bring the best case it can when it comes to his political opponents and let the court decide the rest.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI just want people to act. And we want to act fast,\u201d Trump told reporters Saturday as he departed the White House. \u201cIf they\u2019re not guilty, that\u2019s fine. If they are guilty, or if they should be charged, they should be charged, and we have to do it now.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Some inside the White House view Halligan\u2019s willingness to bring the case as her jumping on a grenade to please Trump \u2013 though that is why she was picked to take on the role of leading the Eastern District of Virginia. While several Justice Department officials are worried about the strength of any case against Comey, multiple political aides share a different view: they prosecuted Trump, so people like Comey deserve to be prosecuted, too.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m always happy to talk about \u2026 Comey, who of course is corrupt, who of course has been engaged in vast amounts of illicit and unlawful conduct, who of course was at the center of the Russia gate attack and assault on American democracy,\u201d White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said on Fox News on Wednesday night. \u201cIt has to lead somewhere to accountability.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s trade adviser Peter Navarro this week called for Comey to be imprisoned for a host of Trumpworld grievances \u2013 many of which federal prosecutors have previously looked at and didn\u2019t find reason to charge.\n <\/p>\n

\n Navarro previously did time in federal prison for refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas in the investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election leading into the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people out there who should be in prison in my judgment, and I think in the judgement of many people in the Trump Administration,\u201d Navarro said. \u201cJames Comey\u2019s at the top of that list now.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Britney Lavecchia contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n

\n This story has been updated with additional developments and details of the charges from the Justice Department.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted by a federal grand jury, an extraordinary escalation in President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-169379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}