Comey charges further enmesh DOJ in Trump's retribution push

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump advanced his push for legal action against perceived political enemies with the indictment of former FBI director James Comey, heightening concerns about the Justice Department’s independence and speculation about others the president wants prosecuted.

In a significant break from norms, the president exclaimed, “JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” in a social media post about the charges filed Thursday against Comey for allegedly lying to Congress and obstruction related to testimony in 2020. The indictment was secured by a former White House aide with no previous experience as a prosecutor before Trump recently handpicked her.

The case against Comey, who denies the charges and vows to fight them, isn’t expected to play out in court for weeks. Still, the speed with which prosecutors secured a criminal indictment after Trump urged action is ricocheting across Washington and beyond.

Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney during the Obama administration, called the indictment “disturbing” in an online post. “A president demanded an indictment of one of his enemies, someone he repeatedly ridiculed and vilified in public statements and social media posts, and he got it,” Vance said.

“This indictment is a huge sledgehammer to that wall of independence that should exist between the White House and the Department of Justice,” Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor, said in an interview.

Trump made clear his desire for the Justice Department to quickly prosecute Comey in a social media post last Saturday. The president urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to take swift action against Comey, California Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” he said in the post that also referred to Trump previously being impeached and indicted. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

When asked by a reporter on Friday about who could be prosecuted next, Trump said he didn’t have a retribution list but that he expected others to be charged.

“It’s not a list, but I think there’ll be others,” he said without naming anyone specifically. “I mean, they’re corrupt. These were corrupt radical left Democrats.”

Prosecutors had faced a deadline next week to bring charges against Comey over his 2020 testimony. Meanwhile, James and Schiff are facing federal probes over allegations that they committed mortgage fraud stemming from claims by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. James and Schiff denied those claims.

The case against James is being handled by the same U.S. attorney’s office that brought the charges against Comey. Lindsey Halligan took over Monday as interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Previously, Halligan was a senior aide at the White House and worked on an initiative to review exhibits at the Smithsonian’s museums to ensure that they reflect American “excellence” as laid out in an executive order. A former insurance lawyer in Florida, she also represented Trump against charges of mishandling classified documents after his first term.

Halligan got the job after Erik Siebert, who oversaw the office, resigned amid pressure by Trump officials to charge James. Siebert’s office told the officials that it hadn’t found sufficient evidence to charge James, Bloomberg News reported.

Comey Charges

If convicted, Comey could face up to five years in prison.

Comey said he is “not afraid” in a video posted on Instagram on Thursday.

“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. His lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said Comey denied the charges and will fight them in court.

Maurene Comey, the former FBI director’s daughter, was ousted in July as a federal prosecutor in New York. She said in a message to office colleagues that she “was summarily fired via memo from Main Justice that did not give a reason for my termination.”

James Comey served as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2013 until he was fired by Trump in 2017. Trump ousted Comey while he was overseeing an investigation into whether Trump or anyone associated with his presidential campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

The Russia investigation was taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller after Comey left and haunted Trump for years before it was closed without any charges against him.

Congressional Testimony

Trump supporters had long-seized on testimony Comey gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020, alleging that he committed perjury.

In an exchange, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas asked Comey during the hearing if he ever authorized anyone to leak information about investigations into Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, or Trump.

Cruz pointed to a claim made by Andrew McCabe, Comey’s then-deputy, that the former FBI director had authorized a leak to The Wall Street Journal. The senator said that McCabe’s account conflicted with previous testimony by Comey.

“Now, what Mr. McCabe is saying and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true; one or the other is false. Who’s telling the truth?” Cruz said.

“I can only speak to my testimony,” Comey responded, saying that he stood by “the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017.”

The Justice Department’s Inspector General issued a report in February 2018 and concluded that Comey didn’t authorize the leak. The report found that McCabe had authorized it for personal reasons.

McCabe was fired in 2018 by Trump’s then-attorney general Jeff Sessions just before he was set to retire and qualify for his full government pension. McCabe has denied wrongdoing and settled a wrongful termination lawsuit in October 2021 that included restoring his pension.

(Jimmy Jenkins, Benjamin Penn, Peter Blumberg, Jordan Fabian and Kate Sullivan contributed.)

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