Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted Thursday. The information got here simply days after President Donald Trump compelled out a US legal professional who declined to deliver such fees, publicly pushed for prosecutions of Comey and different political foes, and installed a loyalist who shortly gave him what he wished.
It’s a remarkable breach of Justice Department norms that say a president isn’t alleged to contain themselves in prosecutions – significantly these during which they’ve a political curiosity.
But this breach has been met on many parts of the proper by shrugs. The prevailing argument is some model of: “Well, Joe Biden started it.”
Trump on Friday stated he expected more indictments of his perceived political enemies, whereas including as an obvious justification: “They weaponized the Justice Department like nobody in history.”
Yet there are crucial variations between the Comey indictment and the Biden Justice Department’s dealing with of Trump.
Whatever one thinks of the selections to indict a then-former president, this is a significant escalation in Trump’s ongoing politicization of the justice system and broader weaponization of the government.
The largest distinction is in the roles the presidents themselves performed.
In Trump’s case, he publicly acknowledged that he wished the prosecution of Comey, whom he’s stated was responsible of crimes, and he took actions to make {that a} actuality – first by forcing out a US attorney who had issues about the proof for some of the fees he was being pressured to deliver towards Trump’s enemies (notably these associated to New York Attorney General Letitia James.)
“Yeah, I want him out, yeah,” Trump said last Friday, shortly earlier than US Attorney Erik Siebert resigned.
Trump adopted that up the subsequent day by naming Comey and others he’s accused of crimes and urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to behave sooner: “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility.”
NCS has reported that Bondi had reservations about the Comey case. (She denies this, telling NCS, “That is a flat out lie.”)
But the case has now been introduced.
And crucially, it seems to be like Trump’s stress made it occur; the statute of limitations on Comey’s alleged perjury was set to run out on Tuesday.
Trump clearly performed a a lot larger position in Comey’s indictment than any of the proof suggests Biden did in Trump’s indictments.
That doesn’t imply Biden was faultless. He often commented on ongoing prison investigations – together with Trump’s – in obvious violation of Justice Department norms. He at one level advocated for prosecuting people who defied the House January 6 committee’s subpoenas, fees that have been later introduced towards Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro. The New York Times reported in 2022 that Biden had privately expressed frustration that Trump hadn’t been charged.
But there is no real evidence that Biden played a role in the selections to indict Trump and even that his stress impacted them.
The fees have been introduced by a particular counsel that was impartial even of Biden’s appointed legal professional basic, Merrick Garland. Both stated they didn’t really feel stress from Biden.
And the Democratic president didn’t repeatedly push for the prosecutions of his enemies in public, as Trump has. He didn’t have fun the fees towards Trump, as Trump did after Comey’s indictment. And crucially, Biden actually didn’t drive out a prosecutor who had reservations about some of the fees he was being pressed to deliver and change him with somebody who would shortly do his bidding.
Indicting a former president, as particular counsel Jack Smith did, is on one other degree than indicting a former FBI director. And Trump was indicted no fewer than 4 occasions, together with twice at the federal degree.
So Democratic administrations have clearly gone additional in charging their political opponents, at the very least as issues stand.
But simply because the scale is different doesn’t imply it’s inherently extra politicized. Put plainly: If you and your allies dedicated extra alleged crimes or pushed the limits extra, you’ll count on there to be extra prison fees.
And the report exhibits that, when fees have been introduced towards Trump and his allies, they were overwhelmingly successful. They resulted in convictions or responsible pleas in the overwhelming majority of instances – practically a dozen in complete, together with prosecutions stemming from the Mueller investigation in Trump’s first time period. The one large exception was the prosecution of Tom Barrack, during which he was acquitted.
Those convictions embody, of course, Trump himself, who’s maintained no wrongdoing and pleaded not responsible in all instances towards him.
He was discovered responsible of 34 felony counts in the one indictment that truly went to trial, the hush cash case in New York.
And the federal fees towards Trump that by no means went to trial additionally handled points that even some Republicans considered very severe.
On the January 6, 2021, case, a historic seven Republican senators voted at his impeachment trial to convict Trump of inciting the revolt. Others advised Trump was culpable however voted to acquit him on a technicality as a result of he was now not president. (Then-Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell even indicated the challenge was higher dealt with in prison court docket.)
On the categorized paperwork case, even some of Trump’s own Cabinet officials solid the fees as utterly official. Former Attorney General William Barr stated the proof of Trump’s alleged obstruction of justice in refusing to return the paperwork appeared damning. And former Defense Secretary Mark Esper stated that if the allegations have been true, Trump jeopardized nationwide safety and must be “held to account.”
It stays to be seen whether or not the fees towards Comey, who maintains his innocence, wind up being profitable. He’s charged with perjury and obstruction of a congressional proceeding, stemming from 2020 testimony during which he stood by his denials of authorizing leaks.
But it’s value emphasizing that others have checked out such points with Comey and didn’t appear to suppose they rose to the degree of fees.
There is some uncertainty about exactly what Comey’s alleged false statements pertained to.
NCS reported Friday that officers and folks concerned in the case stated the alleged leak concerned an investigation into Hillary Clinton. NCS’s Jake Tapper reported that the particular person whom Comey allegedly licensed to leak info was Columbia regulation professor Daniel Richman.
But paperwork declassified earlier this yr by the FBI confirmed it probed the challenge in 2017. Those documents stated Richman denied Comey requested him to speak to the media and concluded, “The investigation has not yielded sufficient evidence to criminally charge any person, including Comey or Richman, with making false statements or with the substantive offenses under investigation.” (The Comey indictment doesn’t accuse Richman of wrongdoing.)
It additionally stays attainable the individual Comey allegedly leaked to was former deputy FBI Director Andy McCabe, who is now a NCS contributor. But a DOJ inspector general in 2018 examined Comey’s authentic feedback denying authorizing leaks and located that, at the very least vis-à-vis McCabe, “the overwhelming weight of that evidence supported Comey’s version.”
Another DOJ inspector basic report the following yr faulted Comey for mishandling memos containing categorized info. But Trump’s first-term DOJ declined to prosecute him over it, partially as a result of of a scarcity of proof that Comey acted willfully and meant to violate the regulation.
There’s a lot we don’t learn about how substantial the fees towards Comey is likely to be, particularly given the indictment didn’t go into a lot element.
But we’ve already seen how Trump’s claims of prison exercise by his foes haven’t precisely panned out in the face of authorized scrutiny. Trump and his allies endlessly hyped particular counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Mueller probe, which Trump claimed to be a large conspiracy towards him. Three individuals wound up being charged with comparatively minor crimes; two of them were acquitted.
That’s an enormous distinction to the sturdy prosecutorial report in instances involving Trump and his allies.
If nothing else, Comey’s prosecution will in the end shine a significant highlight on whether or not Trump’s claims that his opponents are criminals holds up in court docket.
But regardless, the manner during which we arrived at this level bears little resemblance to what occurred throughout the Biden administration.