Staffers under Attorney General Pam Bondi have branded the indictment of former FBI director James Comey one of the “worst abuses” in the Justice Department’s history, according to a report.
Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 until 2017 when President Donald Trump fired him, is accused of making false statements and obstructing a congressional proceeding in September 2020, according to Thursday’s indictment. He’s denied any wrongdoing. If convicted, he could face up to five years behind bars.
Bondi said the indictment reflects the DOJ’s “commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people.”
But some DOJ employees appear to disagree, with department sources telling MSNBC: “The Comey indictment is among the worst abuses in DOJ history. Shocking. It’s hard to overstate how big a moment this is.”
The Justice Department declined to comment to The Independent on the reported remarks.
“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,” Comey said after the indictment was made public.
Days before the indictment was handed down, President Donald Trump instructed Bondi to pursue his political foes in a message on his social media platform.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Trump suggested the indictment was part of a revenge operation Friday and that he hopes there will be other charges brought against his political foes. “They did it with me for four years. They went after me. They went after me for four years. And that doesn’t include the four great years that we had in the White House,” Trump told reporters.
Comey is accused of lying when he testified before Congress in 2020 about whether he authorized someone at the FBI to be a source for a Wall Street Journal article. The story was about the probe into Hillary Clinton that was published in October 2016, shortly before the presidential election
A 2018 report, from the office of the inspector general, found that in 2016, then-deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe authorized bureau staff to speak to the Journal about the Clinton investigation.
In the days after the article’s publication, McCabe alleged he told Comey that he had authorized the leak and that Comey “accepted it,” the report states. The report also accuses McCabe of a “lack of candor” for his false statements over the incident.
McCabe was fired from the FBI the following month, days before his scheduled retirement.
In 2017, Comey had testified before Congress that he had not authorized the leak. In 2020, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz pressed Comey on the matter again. “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?” the senator asked.
“I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017,” the former FBI director replied.
Comey was indicted days after Erik Siebert, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, submitted his resignation.
Trump told reporters he wanted Siebert “out” because he learned that Virginia’s Democratic senators supported his nomination earlier this year.
According to ABC News, however, investigators were unable to find mortgage fraud charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, another one of Trump’s perceived political enemies. Still, the administration pushed Siebert to press charges, despite the lack of evidence supporting it, the outlet reported.
James, who previously led a civil case against him in New York, appears to be “very guilty of something, but I really don’t know,” Trump said last week.
