James Comey, the former FBI director who was indicted Thursday, has had a longstanding feud with President Donald Trump that dates again to his abrupt firing throughout the early months of Trump’s first time period.
Comey has been indicted with obstruction of a congressional continuing and giving false statements. The case stems again to Comey’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and focuses on whether or not Comey made false statements throughout congressional testimony.
The indictments represents a unprecedented escalation in Trump’s effort to prosecute his political enemies.
The former FBI director alluded to his tense relationship with the president in his first remarks after the indictment, saying in an Instagram video: “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. We will not live on our knees and you shouldn’t either,”
Comey added in the video: “I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial.”
With his anticipated arraignment two weeks away, right here’s 4 key issues to find out about Comey:
Comey was presumably one in all the most influential figures in the 2016 election, with many crediting his probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server simply days earlier than the election as serving to Trump win the race.
An FBI investigation into Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former New York congressman, led investigators to search out emails belonging to Huma Abedin — Weiner’s estranged spouse and a Clinton adviser — on Weiner’s laptop computer, with preliminary information exhibiting these emails went by way of Clinton’s server.
The discovery was sufficient to steer Comey to conclude the emails would should be reviewed to see if he’d have to reopen an investigation he’d closed in July into whether or not Clinton stored categorised info on a non-public e mail server she used throughout her tenure as secretary of state.
On October 28, 2016 — 11 days earlier than the election — Comey introduced that the FBI would examine the extra emails.
In the days that adopted, Trump effusively praised Comey.
“It took a lot of guts,” Trump mentioned at the time. “I really disagreed with him. I was not his fan. But I’ll tell you what, what he did, he brought back his reputation.”
Then, on November 6, 2016 — simply two days earlier than the election — Comey informed lawmakers the agency has not changed its opinion that Clinton shouldn’t face felony prices.
Clinton has mentioned she believes the investigation cost her the election, telling NCS’s Christiane Amanpour in May 2017: “If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president.”
In May 2017, Trump fired Comey, who had been main a federal investigation into his marketing campaign’s alleged ties to Russia.
Trump’s prime deputies – together with then-Vice President Mike Pence – publicly said that Trump acted solely after receiving the advice to fireplace Comey from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. But Trump later disputed White House accounts by insisting he’d lengthy deliberate to fireplace Comey, even earlier than his Justice Department supplied him a purpose. “When I decided to just do it, I said to myself – I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,” Trump mentioned days after the firing.
Comey, roughly a month later, testified to Congress that the “shifting explanations” from the White House for his termination “confused” and more and more involved him. He informed lawmakers that the Trump administration had informed “lies, plain and simple” about him and that he was “confused” by Trump saying he was fired as a result of the Russia probe. He famous that he didn’t imagine that neither Trump nor his workers had requested him to cease the Russia investigation.
He additionally notably testified that he had orchestrated the leak of accounts of conversations with Trump as a result of he thought it’d result in the appointment of a particular prosecutor to steer the Russia probe.
Comey was questioned in May 2025 by the US Secret Service after he posted a photograph on social media exhibiting seashells on a seaside that spelled out “86 47.” The publish prompted uproar from Republicans who claimed that it was a risk towards the president, however Comey repeatedly denied that it was a name for violence.
The quantity 86 can usually check with eliminating or tossing one thing out, whereas 47 corresponds to Trump’s present time period in workplace as the forty seventh president. Comey informed NCS at the time that he took down the post as soon as he noticed that some individuals related the phrase “86” with violence.
“I don’t want any part of it, and so that’s why I took it down,” he mentioned on “AC360.”
He recalled being at the seaside with his spouse, a former server, who famous that “86” was a “kitchen phrase” that meant “to get it off the menu.”
“And I thought, well, that’s a clever political message,” he mentioned. “It never occurred to me – actually, still doesn’t – that it’s associated with violence.”
Comey was concerned in a number of high-profile circumstances throughout his tenure as a prosecutor.
The Clinton e mail scandal was not Comey’s first investigation into the former first woman. In 1996, Comey was the deputy particular counsel of the Special Committee to Investigate Whitewater Development Corporation and Related Matters, which regarded into allegations that Clinton and former President Bill Clinton took half in a fraudulent actual property deal.
In 2001, Comey was assigned to steer the investigation into the Khobar Towers bombing, which killed 19 American service members in Saudi Arabia.
As the US lawyer for the Southern District of New York in 2003, Comey introduced prices towards Martha Stewart of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and securities fraud linked to promoting ImClone Systems inventory. Stewart was convicted on all counts in 2004 and sentenced to 5 months in jail.
Comey then served as the deputy lawyer normal in George W. Bush’s administration from 2003 to 2005.
In 2013, he was confirmed by the US Senate as director of the FBI with a 93-1 vote.
NCS’s Eric Bradner, Jeremy Diamond and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.