{"id":44177,"date":"2025-09-26T07:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T07:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44177\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T07:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T07:26:07","slug":"ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-two-charges-as-trump-pushes-to-prosecute-enemies-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44177\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-FBI director James Comey indicted on two charges as Trump pushes to prosecute enemies \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Comey<\/a>, the former FBI <\/a>director and one of Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s most frequent targets, was indicted on Thursday on one count of making a false statement to Congress and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding.<\/p>\n

It is the latest move in the president\u2019s retribution campaign against his political adversaries.<\/p>\n

The indictment, filed in federal district court in Alexandria, Virginia, shows Mr Comey\u2019s charges centred on whether he lied and misled lawmakers during testimony in September 2020 about the Russia investigation.<\/p>\n

While the precise details were not clear in the sparse, two-page indictment, it appeared to reference Mr Comey\u2019s testimony that he had never authorised someone at the FBI to leak to the news media about the Trump or Hillary Clinton investigations \u2013 a claim prosecutors alleged was false.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is above the law. Today\u2019s indictment reflects this Department of Justice\u2019s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people,\u201d Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, said in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The indictment followed Mr Trump\u2019s instruction to Ms Bondi to \u201cmove now\u201d to prosecute Mr Comey and other officials he considers political foes, in an impatient and extraordinarily direct social media post trampling on the justice department\u2019s tradition of independence.<\/p>\n

It also came less than a week after Lindsey Halligan was installed as the top federal prosecutor in the eastern district of Virginia, after Mr Trump fired her predecessor, Erik Siebert, after he declined to bring charges against Mr Comey over concerns there was insufficient evidence.<\/p>\n

Ms Halligan, most recently a White House aide and former Trump lawyer who has no prosecutorial experience, was also presented with a memo earlier this week laying out why charges should not be brought. But the justice department still pushed it through, people familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n

Responding to the indictment, hours after it was filed, Mr Comey said in a video statement posted on Instagram that he was innocent and welcomed a trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn\u2019t imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn\u2019t either,\u201d Mr Comey said.<\/p>\n

Referencing the farewell email his daughter, Maureen, sent after she was fired from her job as a federal prosecutor in New York, Mr Comey said: \u201cSomebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant. And she\u2019s right. But I\u2019m not afraid. And I hope you\u2019re not either.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope instead you are engaged. You are paying attention, and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it. My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I\u2019m innocent. So let\u2019s have a trial. And keep the faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors had also sought a third charge against Mr Comey, but grand jurors rejected the request, court documents show.<\/p>\n

Ensconced at the White House, Mr Trump celebrated the charges in a post on Truth Social, writing: \u201cJUSTICE 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday he was indicted by a Grand Jury on two felony counts for various illegal and unlawful acts. 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. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Comey was expected to surrender and have his initial appearance in federal district court on Friday morning. He is expected to be represented by Patrick Fitzgerald, a former US attorney for the northern district of Illinois.<\/p>\n

He faces up to five years in prison if convicted, but legal experts suggested the case may be difficult to prove.<\/p>\n

Many current and former justice department officials condemned the filing of charges on Thursday night, criticising what they viewed as weak evidence for the case.<\/p>\n

Mark Warner, a Democratic senator from Virginia, condemned the charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump has made clear that he intends to turn our justice system into a weapon for punishing and silencing his critics,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cThis kind of interference is a dangerous abuse of power. Our system depends on prosecutors making decisions based on evidence and the law, not on the personal grudges of a politician determined to settle scores.\u201d<\/p>\n

In social media posts on Saturday, Mr Trump claimed that Mr Comey, Letitia James and a third political opponent, Democratic senator Adam Schiff, were \u201cguilty as hell\u201d and that his supporters were upset that \u201cnothing has been done\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t delay any longer, it\u2019s killing our reputation and credibility,\u201d Trump posted. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Trump\u2019s contempt for Mr Comey stretches back to the early days of his first term, when according to Mr Comey, Mr Trump sought to secure a pledge of loyalty from the then FBI director, who refused. At the time, Mr Comey was leading the criminal investigation into Russian meddling in the US election. Mr Trump dismissed Mr Comey in May 2017. \u2212 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Comey, the former FBI director and one of Donald Trump\u2019s most frequent targets, was indicted on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,285,42,32843,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-44177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-fbi","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-james-comey","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}