On Thursday (September 25), officers charged James Comey with mendacity to Congress. This prison case comes days after President Donald Trump seemingly pushed his legal professional basic to prosecute the previous FBI director and different alleged political enemies.
Let’s break down what’s actually occurring and what’s going to doubtless occur subsequent.
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The Context Earlier than The Prices
The president singled out Comey in a social media submit final Saturday. He urged AG Pam Bondi to cost him, complaining concerning the DOJ’s lack of fees in opposition to his foes. “We will’t delay any longer, it’s killing our popularity and credibility,” Trump wrote, referencing the truth that he had been indicted and impeached a number of occasions.
Then, the Japanese District of Virginia workplace made its transfer. The company filed the case in opposition to Comey following a lil’ little bit of inner chaos, too. Chief prosecutor Erik Siebert had resigned on Friday. In accordance with the Related Press, he confronted strain to cost one other of Trump’s targets, New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James, in a mortgage fraud investigation. He didn’t cost Comey or James. In Erik Siebert’s place, President Trump nominated Lindsey Halligan. Halligan is a White Home aide who had been one among Trump’s private legal professionals. She has not beforehand served as a federal prosecutor.
New to the prosecutor recreation, Halligan nonetheless rushed to current the James Comey case to a grand jury this week. She had till Tuesday to deliver a case in opposition to him for allegedly mendacity to Congress throughout testimony on Sept. 30, 2020. After that, the five-year statute of limitations would have expired, making it unimaginable for the DOJ to cost the previous FBI director criminally. Halligan pushed for the indictment regardless of different prosecutors citing concern in a memo about pursuing it.
What Is James Comey Being Accused Of?
Finally, James Comey was indicted on two counts. Nonetheless, the indictment doesn’t take care of the substance of the Russian investigation. As a substitute, it accuses the previous director of constructing a false assertion to the Senate Judiciary Committee and obstructing a congressional continuing.
Halligan argued that Comey lied when he mentioned he had not approved anybody else on the FBI to be an nameless supply in information stories a few specific investigation. It’s not clear what the alleged supply shared with the media then. Moreover, the indictment alleges that James Comey did “corruptly endeavor to affect, impede and impede the due and correct train” of the Senate’s inquiry.
Comey, in a video posted after his indictment, mentioned, “My coronary heart is damaged for the Division of Justice, however I’ve nice confidence within the federal judicial system, and I’m harmless. So let’s have a trial.”
Comey’s Indictment Is Linked To 2016 Election
James Comey was fired months into Trump’s first administration. Since then, he has remained a prime goal for Trump and his supporters looking for retaliation associated to the Russia investigation. The president has for years mentioned the investigation was a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”
However, Comey is now the primary ex-senior authorities official to face prosecution over Trump’s refusal to simply accept the outcomes of the 2016 election investigation. A number of authorities critiques have proven that Moscow, Russia, interfered with the election on behalf of the Republicans’ marketing campaign. That’s the election that gave Trump the win over Hillary Clinton. For context, Robert Mueller and prosecutors didn’t set up that Trump or his associates criminally colluded with Russia. Nonetheless, they did discover that Trump’s marketing campaign had welcomed Moscow’s help.
Donald Trump & His Supporters React To The Indictment
Since James Comey’s indictment, Donald Trump has reacted a number of occasions by way of social media. At about 7 p.m. ET, the president known as it “JUSTICE IN AMERICA” on Fact Social. He added that Comey is “one of many worst human beings” the U.S. has been uncovered to. Including that the ex-director is the “former Corrupt Head of the FBI.”
“Right now [James Comey] was indicted by a Grand Jury on two felony counts for varied unlawful and illegal acts,” Trump wrote on Thursday. “He has been so unhealthy for our Nation, for therefore lengthy, and is now in the beginning of being held liable for his crimes in opposition to our Nation. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
In a second Fact Social submit early Friday, Donald Trump continued to go in on Comey. He accused the previous FBI director of being a liar and soiled cop who “bought caught.”
“Whether or not you want Corrupt James Comey or not, and I can’t think about too many individuals liking him, HE LIED! It isn’t a fancy lie, it’s a quite simple, however IMPORTANT one. There isn’t a manner he can clarify his manner out of it. He’s a Soiled Cop, and all the time has been, however he was simply assigned a Crooked Joe Biden appointed Decide, so he’s off to an excellent begin. However, phrases are phrases, and he wasn’t hedging or in dispute. He was very constructive, there was little question in his thoughts about what he mentioned, or meant by saying it. He left himself ZERO margin of error on an enormous and vital reply to a query. He simply bought unexpectedly caught. James “Soiled Cop” Comey was a destroyer of lives. He knew precisely what he was saying, and that it was a really severe and much reaching lie for which a really large value should be paid! President DJT”
AG Pam Bondi, a Trump loyalist, and FBI Director Kash Patel, a longtime critic of the Russia investigation, issued comparable statements. “Nobody is above the legislation,” Bondi mentioned.
Trump & Comey BEEN HAD Beef!
A lil’ bit about James Comey. He was a senior Justice Division official in Republican President George W. Bush’s administration. Then, Obama picked him to steer the FBI in 2013. Comey was director when the bureau opened the Russia investigation in the summertime of 2016.
Not surprisingly, James Comey’s relationship with Donald Trump was strained from the bounce! Issues worsened when Comey resisted Trump’s request at a personal White Home dinner to pledge private loyalty to him. After refusing, the FBI director additionally documented the request in a memo. Trump later fired James Comey in Could 2017. Robert Mueller later investigated the firing for potential obstruction of justice.
After being let go, James Comey approved an in depth buddy to share what he wrote in an unclassified memo with a reporter. The memo documented an Oval Workplace request from Donald Trump to close down an FBI investigation into his first nationwide safety adviser, Michael Flynn. Trump and his allies later branded Comey a leaker. Moreover, the president even accused him of treason. Comey himself has known as Trump “ego-driven” and likened him to a mafia don.
James Comey’s Household Is Feeling The Warmth, Too!
Earlier this yr, the FBI fired Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, from her job as a prosecutor within the Southern District of New York. She has since sued. She claims the termination was carried out with none rationalization and for political causes.
Individually, Comey’s son-in-law, Troy Edwards, resigned as a federal prosecutor within the Japanese District of Virginia minutes after Comey was indicted. In a one-sentence resignation letter addressed to Halligan, Edwards wrote that he give up his job “to uphold my oath to the Structure and the nation.”
Related Press workers Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer and Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report by way of AP Newsroom.
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