Washington (AP) – James Comey He was charged Thursday with false statements and obstruction in a criminal case filed days later after President Donald Trump began appearing to urge the Attorney General to indict the former FBI director and other perceived political enemies.
The indictment makes Comey the first former government official to face charges in relation to a long-standing conclusion, one of Trump’s major complaints Investigating Russian interference Elections in 2016. Trump and his supporters have long debated investigations as “hoos” and “witch hunts,” despite multiple government reviews showing Moscow intervened on behalf of the Republican campaign.
Criminal cases are likely to deepen concerns by the Department of Justice, based on the Attorney General. Pam BondyTrump’s loyalty has been weaponized to pursue investigations, and is now prosecuting public figures the president considers his political enemy.
It was submitted to take steps to help the White House take influence in the operations of the Department of Justice in an unprecedented way, blurring the line between institutional law and politics, where independence in prosecutors’ decision-making is the fundamental principle.
Comey was Dismissal A few months after Trump’s first administration, it has long been the highest target for Trump supporters seeking retaliation. Comey was chosen by name in a social media post on Saturday. Trump complained directly to Bondi that she had not yet filed accusations against him.
The next night, Trump said in the Social Post of Truth He aimed to become Attorney General, and aimed that the department’s investigation did not result in prosecution. He said he would nominate White House aide Lindsay Harrigan to serve as US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. She is one of Trump’s personal lawyers and has no experience as a federal prosecutor.
“We can’t delay it anymore. It kills our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote, referring to the fact that he himself was charged and was fired up multiple times. “Justice must be provided, now!!!”
The office that filed a lawsuit against Comey, the Eastern District of Virginia, fell into chaos last week. Chief prosecutor Eric Siebert resigns He is under pressure to file charges against another Trump target, New York State Attorney General Leticia James. Home loan fraud investigation.
Harrigan was in a hurry to present the case to the Great Ju Court this week. Prosecutors were assessing whether Comey had lied to Congress during his testimony on September 30, 2020, but had to file a lawsuit until Tuesday before the five-year restrictions law expired. The office’s prosecutors detailed in the concerns of the memos regarding the pursuit of the indictment, which provided pushes forward.
Trump has long been opposed to both the discovery by the US intelligence agency that Russia preferred him over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, and criminal investigations that sought to determine whether his campaign would shake up the outcomes of Moscow and its race. Prosecutors led by special advisor Robert Mueller did not establish that Trump or his associates had criminally conspiracy with Russia, but they found that Trump’s campaign welcomed Moscow’s support.
Trump seized the fact that Mueller’s investigation had not discovered that the Kremlin had colluded with the Trump campaign, and Serious Errors and Omitted Created by the FBI in an eavesdropping application and claims proof. Years of investigation into potential misconduct during Russia’s investigation was conducted by another special advisor, John Durham. This produced three criminal cases, including those against FBI lawyers, but not against senior government officials.
The criminal case against Comey does not relate to the content of the Russian investigation. Rather, he accused the Senate committee of lying in the 2020 appearance, saying that he refused to allow anyone to serve as an anonymous source of information to reporters about the investigation.
Trump’s administration is about to cast a Russian investigation as growth in efforts under Democratic President Barack Obama to flaunt Moscow’s interference in the election and undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s victory.
Management staff including CIA Director John Ratcliffe and the Director of National Intelligence have Tarshigabad A series of documents have been declassified It is intended to reduce the strength of the Obama-era Intelligence Evaluation, released in January 2017, which stated that Moscow was engaged in a wide range of interventions in the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Comey has been Trump’s main antagonist for years. Comey is a high-ranking Justice Department official for Republican President George W. Bush, who was selected as Obama to lead the FBI in 2013, serving as director when the bureau began an investigation into Russia.
Comey’s relationship with Trump has been tense from the start, worsening when Comey resisted Trump’s demands for dinner to pledge his personal loyalty to the president. The overture made the FBI director so uneasy that he recorded it in a memorandum of understanding around the same time.
Trump fired Comey in May 2017. This later filed a lawsuit that Mueller investigated for an obstruction of potential justice.
After being let go, Comey allows her best friend to share it with the reporter. It recorded an oval office request from Trump and the closure of an FBI investigation into Michael Flynn, the first national security adviser. Trump and his allies later branded Comey as a leaker, and the president even accused him of treason. Comey himself called Trump “ego-driven” and likened him to the Mafia Don.
The Justice Department refused to indict Comey for handling his memos during Trump’s first term. Department of Inspector In 2019, it published a harsh critical report that Comey had violated the FBI’s policies. This included sharing with individual lawyers without the permission of the FBI, including not returning the documents to the FBI after being rejected.
Earlier this year, Comey’s daughter was firedMolen Comey has been working as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. She has since sued that the cancellation was made without explanation and for political reasons.
