Former FBI Director James Comey indicted amid Trump push to prosecute foes – The Washington Post

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Former FBI director James Comey indicted amid Trump push to prosecute foes

Comey, who has denied wrongdoing, is charged in connection with allegations he lied to Congress.

Updated, September 25, 2025 at 8:50 p.m. EDT, 10 minutes ago, 5 min

By Salvador Rizzo, Jeremy Roebuck and Perry Stein

Former FBI director James B. Comey was indicted Thursday on allegations he lied to Congress following an extraordinary demand from President Donald Trump for the Justice Department to prosecute a man he has long considered a political foe.

The indictment [ see below ] by a federal grand jury in Alexandria charges Comey with one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of Congress, charges punishable by up to five years in prison.

Editor’s Note: The PDF is embedded here, and a download link.

Grand jurors rejected a third false statement count sought by prosecutors, the panel’s foreperson said during a brief court proceeding following their decision.

The White House recently forced out the previous top prosecutor on the case and replaced him with one of Trump’s former personal attorneys. The indictment makes Comey the first of several Trump targets to face charges following the president’s extraordinary demand last weekend that Attorney General Pam Bondi move swiftly to bring cases against several of his perceived political adversaries.

The case also means Comey is the first former senior government official to face prosecution in connection with an investigation that has become a central grievance for Trump since his first term — the FBI’s probe of Russian interference in his 2016 election victory.

Comey declared his innocence in a video statement posted to social media and vowed to take his case to trial.

“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. “We will not live on our knees and you shouldn’t either.”

Trump derided Comey as “the former Corrupt Head of the FBI” in a social media post Thursday evening after the indictment was returned.

“JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” Trump wrote, adding later of Comey: “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”

Bondi, in a statement Thursday, said “no one is above the law.”

“Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people,” she said. “We will follow the facts in this case.”

Comey was originally appointed as FBI director in 2013 by President Barack Obama. He was fired by Trump in 2017 amid acrimony largely stemming from the FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation.

The case against him centers on testimony he gave before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020 during a hearing on the FBI’s Russian interference investigation. Under questioning from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Comey testified he’d never authorized leaks to the media about the Russia investigation or a separate probe into then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Prosecutors now contend that answer was untrue, forming the basis for the first charge against him. The second count, obstruction of a congressional proceeding, relates to the same September 2020 testimony but does not specify the “false and misleading statements” Comey is alleged to have made that forms the basis for the charge.

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