DOJ nearing decision whether to charge former FBI Director James Comey with lying to Congress, sources say
By Katelyn Polantz, Evan Perez, Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
(CNN) — Federal prosecutors are preparing to ask a grand jury to indict former FBI Director James Comey on perjury charges, but have just days to make a final decision, according to people familiar with the investigation.
The investigation, run by federal prosecutors at the US Attorney’s Office for Virginia’s eastern district, is examining whether Comey made false statements during his September, 30, 2020, testimony to Congress on his handling of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, people familiar with the matter said. Prosecutors, under criminal law, generally would only have five years to the day to bring a charge.
If prosecutors choose to bring the case and a federal grand jury were to approve it by next week, it would mark one of the highest-profile indictments of a political figure during President Donald Trump’s second term in office – and against one of the longtime figures whom Trump and his political allies detest the most from what they call the “deep state” of the federal government.
Comey hasn’t been charged with a crime and has maintained in testimony that he’s been truthful under oath. An attorney representing Comey in the matter hasn’t responded to requests for comment from CNN.
The Justice Department’s decision on bringing charges against Comey has become especially fraught in recent days after Trump fired Erik Siebert, the former US Attorney overseeing the case. Trump, in social media postings and in comments to reporters in recent days, has voiced frustrations that prosecutions of his political enemies, including of Comey, have not moved quickly enough.
Siebert had balked at bringing mortgage fraud charges against Letitia James, the New York attorney general. Trump has attacked James repeatedly since she successfully brought civil fraud charges against Trump and his company last year.
A source familiar with the matter, however, said Siebert had fewer hesitations over bringing charges in the Comey investigation.
With Siebert’s ouster and the deadline for a charge against Comey nearing, Trump this week installed Lindsey Halligan, one of his former personal lawyers, as acting US Attorney in the Alexandria-based Eastern District of Virginia. Halligan has been spotted in recent days at the Justice Department headquarters as decisions on Comey and other cases loom.
Comey also drawn scrutiny in recent months after posting on social media a photo of shells he said he saw on a beach arranged to read “86 47,” which Trump and allies claimed represented a threat to kill the president. Comey denied he intended to threaten Trump and voluntarily sat for an interview with the US Secret Service.
Recent intelligence declassification efforts by the Trump administration dredged up some of Comey’s oversight of the FBI again.
The former director initially drew Trump’s ire after his handling of the investigation into ties between suspected Russian operatives and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Trump quickly fired Comey – an unprecedented move at the time – early in his first term.
Since then, Comey has been a figure of virulent criticism from Republicans, not only for his handling of the Russia investigation but also in how he publicly announced and handled a separate investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her stint as Secretary of State.
In the short period during which he served as FBI director under Trump, Comey took memos documenting meetings he had with Trump – memos he retained and that later were leaked to the press.
That same year, in 2017, Comey testified during a Senate hearing that he had sent documents to Columbia University law school professor Daniel Richman, a friend of his, instructing Richman to share the information with a reporter.
Two years later, a report from the DOJ’s inspector general found that Comey violated agency policies when he leaked information from the memos. While the memos themselves contained classified information, the IG did not find evidence that Comey leaked any classified information from the memos.
At the time of the report, Trump tweeted that “perhaps never in the history of our Country has someone been more thoroughly disgraced and excoriated than James Comey in the just released Inspector General’s Report. He should be ashamed of himself!”
During his 2020 Senate Judiciary testimony, Comey testified that he stood by previous statements he made under oath to Congress that he hadn’t leaked to the media or authorized others at the FBI to leak to the media.
CNN’s Casey Gannon, Aileen Graef and Betul Tuncer contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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