Who is James Comey, the former FBI director now charged with two felony counts?
By Kaanita Iyer, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN
(CNN) — James Comey, the former FBI director who was indicted Thursday, has had a longstanding feud with President Donald Trump that dates back to his abrupt firing during the early months of Trump’s first term.
Comey has been indicted with obstruction of a congressional proceeding and giving false statements. The case stems back to Comey’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and focuses on whether Comey made false statements during congressional testimony.
The indictments represents an extraordinary 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 expected arraignment two weeks away, here’s four key things to know about Comey:
‘October Surprise’ in the 2016 election
Comey was possibly one of the most influential figures in the 2016 election, with many crediting his probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server just days before the election as helping Trump win the race.
An FBI investigation into Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former New York congressman, led investigators to find emails belonging to Huma Abedin — Weiner’s estranged wife and a Clinton adviser — on Weiner’s laptop, with initial data showing those emails went through Clinton’s server.
The discovery was enough to lead Comey to conclude the emails would need to be reviewed to see if he’d need to reopen an investigation he’d closed in July into whether Clinton kept classified information on a private email server she used during her tenure as secretary of state.
On October 28, 2016 — 11 days before the election — Comey announced that the FBI would investigate the additional emails.
In the days that followed, Trump effusively praised Comey.
“It took a lot of guts,” Trump said 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 — just two days before the election — Comey told lawmakers the agency has not changed its opinion that Clinton should not face criminal charges.
Clinton has said she believes the investigation cost her the election, telling CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in May 2017: “If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president.”
Trump fired Comey over Russia probe
In May 2017, Trump fired Comey, who had been leading a federal investigation into his campaign’s alleged ties to Russia.
Trump’s top deputies – including then-Vice President Mike Pence – publicly said that Trump acted only after receiving the recommendation to fire Comey from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. But Trump later disputed White House accounts by insisting he’d long planned to fire Comey, even before his Justice Department provided him a reason. “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 said 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 increasingly concerned him. He told lawmakers that the Trump administration had told “lies, plain and simple” about him and that he was “confused” by Trump saying he was fired due to the Russia probe. He noted that he did not believe that neither Trump nor his staff had asked him to stop the Russia investigation.
He also notably testified that he had orchestrated the leak of accounts of conversations with Trump because he thought it might lead to the appointment of a special prosecutor to lead the Russia probe.
Interviewed by Secret Service agents in May
Comey was questioned in May 2025 by the US Secret Service after he posted a photo on social media showing seashells on a beach that spelled out “86 47.” The post prompted uproar from Republicans who claimed that it was a threat against the president, but Comey repeatedly denied that it was a call for violence.
The number 86 can often refer to getting rid of or tossing something out, while 47 corresponds to Trump’s current term in office as the 47th president. Comey told CNN at the time that he took down the post once he saw that some people associated the phrase “86” with violence.
“I don’t want any part of it, and so that’s why I took it down,” he said on “AC360.”
He recalled being at the beach with his wife, a former server, who noted 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 said. “It never occurred to me – actually, still doesn’t – that it’s associated with violence.”
High profile cases as a prosecutor
Comey was involved in several high-profile cases during his tenure as a prosecutor.
The Clinton email scandal was not Comey’s first investigation into the former first lady. In 1996, Comey was the deputy special counsel of the Special Committee to Investigate Whitewater Development Corporation and Related Matters, which looked into allegations that Clinton and former President Bill Clinton took part in a fraudulent real estate deal.
In 2001, Comey was assigned to lead the investigation into the Khobar Towers bombing, which killed 19 American service members in Saudi Arabia.
As the US attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2003, Comey brought charges against Martha Stewart of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and securities fraud linked to selling ImClone Systems stock. Stewart was convicted on all counts in 2004 and sentenced to five months in prison.
Comey then served as the deputy attorney general 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.
CNN’s Eric Bradner, Jeremy Diamond and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.
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