By ERIC TUCKER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — James Comey was charged Thursday with mendacity to Congress in a felony case filed days after President Donald Trump appeared to induce his legal professional basic to prosecute the previous FBI director and different perceived political enemies.
The indictment makes Comey the primary former senior authorities official concerned in one among Trump’s chief grievances, the long-concluded investigation into Russian interference within the 2016 election, to face prosecution. Trump has for years derided that investigation as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” regardless of a number of authorities opinions displaying Moscow interfered on behalf of the Republican’s marketing campaign, and has made clear his want for retribution.
Trump on Thursday hailed the indictment as “JUSTICE FOR AMERICA!” Legal professional Common Pam Bondi, a Trump loyalist, and FBI Director Kash Patel, a longtime vocal critic of the Russia investigation, issued comparable statements. “Nobody is above the regulation,” Bondi mentioned.
The felony case is prone to deepen considerations that the Justice Division underneath Bondi is being weaponized in pursuit of investigations and now prosecutions of public figures the president regards as his political enemies. It was filed because the White Home has taken steps to exert affect in unprecedented methods on the operations of the Justice Division, blurring the road between regulation and politics for an company the place independence in prosecutorial decision-making is a foundational precept.
Comey was fired months into Trump’s first administration and since then has remained a high goal for Trump supporters searching for retaliation associated to the Russia investigation. He was singled out by identify in a Saturday social media publish through which Trump appeared to attraction on to Bondi convey costs towards Comey and complained that Justice Division investigations into his foes had not resulted in costs.
“We will’t delay any longer, it’s killing our popularity and credibility,” Trump wrote, referencing the truth that he himself had been indicted and impeached a number of occasions. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
The workplace that filed the case towards Comey, the Japanese District of Virginia, was thrown into turmoil final week following the resignation of chief prosecutor Erik Siebert, who had not charged Comey and had confronted strain to convey costs towards one other Trump goal, New York Legal professional Common Letitia James, in a mortgage fraud investigation.
The next night, Trump lamented in a Fact Social publish aimed on the legal professional basic that division investigations had not resulted in prosecutions. He nominated as the brand new U.S. legal professional Lindsey Halligan, a White Home aide who had been one among Trump’s private legal professionals however lacked the federal prosecution expertise that might sometimes accompany the accountability of operating one of many Justice Division’s most prestigious workplaces.
Halligan had rushed to current the case to a grand jury this week. Prosecutors evaluating whether or not Comey lied to Congress throughout testimony on Sept. 30, 2020, had till Tuesday to convey a case earlier than the five-year statute of limitations expired. The push to maneuver ahead got here at the same time as prosecutors within the workplace had detailed in a memo considerations concerning the pursuit of an indictment.
The 2-count indictment consists of costs of constructing a false assertion and obstructing a congressional continuing. Comey’s lawyer had no speedy remark.
Trump has for years railed towards each a discovering by U.S. intelligence companies that Russia most popular him to Democrat Hillary Clinton within the 2016 election and the felony investigation that attempted to find out whether or not his marketing campaign had conspired with Moscow to sway the end result of that race. Prosecutors led by particular counsel Robert Mueller didn’t set up that Trump or his associates criminally colluded with Russia, however they did discover that Trump’s marketing campaign had welcomed Moscow’s help.
Trump has seized on the truth that Mueller’s investigation didn’t discover that the Trump marketing campaign and the Kremlin colluded, and that there have been vital errors and omissions made by the FBI in wiretap purposes, to say vindication. A yearslong investigation into potential misconduct throughout the Russia investigation, was performed by a unique particular counsel, John Durham. That produced three felony circumstances, together with towards an FBI lawyer, however not towards senior authorities officers.
The felony case towards Comey doesn’t concern the substance of the Russia investigation however fairly accuses him of getting lied to Congress.
The indictment comes towards the backdrop of a Trump administration effort to forged the Russia investigation because the outgrowth of an effort underneath Democratic President Barack Obama to overhype Moscow’s interference within the election and to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s victory.
Administration officers, together with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, have declassified a sequence of paperwork meant to chip away on the energy of an Obama-era intelligence evaluation printed in January 2017 that mentioned Moscow had engaged in a broad marketing campaign of interference on the course of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A senior Justice Division official in Republican President George W. Bush’s administration, Comey was picked by Obama to steer the FBI in 2013 and was director when the bureau opened the Russia investigation in the summertime of 2016.
Comey’s relationship with Trump was strained from the beginning and was exacerbated when Comey resisted a request by Trump at a personal White Home dinner to pledge private loyalty to the president. That overture so unnerved the FBI director that he documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum.
Trump fired Comey in Might 2017, an motion later investigated by Mueller for potential obstruction of justice.
After being let go, Comey approved a detailed good friend to share with a reporter the substance of an unclassified memo that documented an Oval Workplace request from Trump to close down an FBI investigation into his first nationwide safety adviser, Michael Flynn. Trump and his allies later branded Comey a leaker, with the president even accusing him of treason. Comey himself has referred to as Trump “ego pushed” and likened him to a mafia don.
The Justice Division, throughout Trump’s first time period, declined to prosecute Comey over his dealing with of his memos. The division’s inspector basic did problem a harshly essential report in 2019 that mentioned Comey violated FBI insurance policies, together with by failing to return the paperwork to the FBI after he was dismissed and for sharing them along with his private legal professionals with out FBI permission.
Earlier this 12 months, the division fired Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, from her job as a prosecutor within the Southern District of New York. She has since sued, saying the termination was carried out with none rationalization and was completed for political causes.
Kunzelman reported from Alexandria, Virginia.
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