.jpg?trim=0,0,0,0&width=1200&height=800&crop=1200:800 "Texas Six Flags announces a world’s first rollercoaster with record-breaking drop: ‘Tallest, fastest, longest’ – UK Times")
Former FBI director James Comey has been indicted by the Justice Department, which has long heralded its independence, in an unprecedented move against a perceived enemy of President Donald Trump.
Thursday’s indictment accuses Comey of making false statements and obstructing justice during congressional testimony he gave in September 2020. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
“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,” the former FBI director said after the indictment was made public.
The president, who recently ordered U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to swiftly prosecute his political foes, celebrated the news on his Truth Social platform. He branded Comey “one of the worst human beings this country has ever been exposed to.”
Here is a timeline of their turbulent relationship.
July 2016
James Comey was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York when he was tapped to serve as deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush in 2003, and became FBI director in the first Obama administration. His first tangle with Trump appears to date to the 2016 presidential election campaign when the latter faced off against Democratic nominee and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
In the summer before the election, Comey announced that the bureau would not recommend bringing criminal charges against Clinton after an investigation into whether classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on her personal email server when she was secretary of state.
Trump was enraged by the news and told his supporters at a North Carolina rally that Comey’s decision was the “best evidence ever that we’ve seen that our system is totally rigged.”
October 2016
Months after stating the investigation into Clinton’s email server had been completed, Comey wrote a letter to Congress explaining that the FBI, through an unrelated case, had learned of the existence of additional emails connected to the Democratic nominee, and planned to investigate. The letter was dated October 28, 2016 — 11 days before the presidential election.
Comey faced intense scrutiny for years over the decision. Some even accused him of potentially costing Clinton the election. The former secretary of state would later say she was “dumbfounded” by the move.
He reflected on the email probe in 2018, telling PBS: “There was no good option for me and for the FBI.”
March 2017
Two months into Trump’s first term, the FBI director announced the bureau was investigating Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. That probe included “any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government,” he told a House committee.
The probe began in late July.
April 2017
The president suggests it’s “not too late” to fire Comey.
“No, it’s not too late, but, you know, I have confidence in him,” Trump told Fox News. “We’ll see what happens. You know, it’s going to be interesting.”
May 2017
Comey is criticized by both sides of the aisle.
Speaking at a New York charity luncheon, Clinton acknowledged her campaign’s “shortfalls” but also placed blame on the FBI director. “I was on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28th and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off. And the evidence for the intervening event is, I think, compelling, persuasive,” she said.
The same day, Trump posted a tweet, also taking aim at Comey: “FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds!”
Comey testified the following day that he stood by his decision to inform Congress of the FBI’s email probe. “It makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election, but honestly, it wouldn’t change the decision,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
One week later, Trump fired Comey.
June 2017
Comey tells the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a hearing about the Russia collusion investigation, that Trump had asked him to clarify that he wasn’t personally being investigated in the probe.
“The ask was to get it out that I, the president, am not personally under investigation,” Comey told the panel. Comey had already privately told Trump that he wasn’t personally under investigation, he told the committee, adding that he didn’t want to make the public statement because he didn’t want to create “a duty to correct” if that situation later changed.
April 2018
The Justice Department handed over 15 pages of Comey’s memos to Congress, revealing insight into his one-on-one conversations with President Trump.
“James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?” Trump tweeted.
The office of the inspector general launched an investigation into the memos, determining that Comey violated FBI policy by retaining some after leaving his post and authorizing a friend to provide some of the contents to a New York Times reporter. The Justice Department declined prosecution.
Comey released a memoir, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, in which he called Trump “unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values.”
September 2020
During the pandemic, Comey testified virtually before the Senate Judiciary Committee again about the FBI’s handling of the Russia and Clinton investigations.
This testimony is at the heart of Thursday’s indictment.
During that 2020 hearing, Republican Senator Ted Cruz asked: “On May 3rd, 2017, in this committee, Chairman Grassley asked you point blank, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation? You responded under oath, ‘Never.’
“He then asked you, ‘Have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton administration?’ You responded again under oath, ‘No.’”
In 2017, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in 2017 admitted he had “authorized” officials to discuss a probe into Clinton to a Wall Street Journal reporter in 2016. In the days after the article’s publication, McCabe alleged that he told Comey that he had authorized the leak and that Comey “accepted it,” according to a 2018 OIG report. The report also found that McCabe “lacked candor” for his repeated false statements about the incident.
Both Comey’s and McCabe’s statements about the matter cannot both be true, Cruz said during the 2020 hearing. He added: “Who’s telling the truth?”
Comey replied: “I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017.”
May 2025
Five months into the second Trump administration, the former FBI director sparked conspiracy theories after he posted a photo of sea shells depicting “8647” on his Instagram account.
Some Trump allies believed the post was a call to “assassinate” Trump. Comey later removed the post, denied that he intended for any violence, and said the message was “totally innocent.”
July 2025
The Justice Department fires Maurene Comey, the former FBI director’s daughter and prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The respected prosecutor was known for her prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein associate and sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell, and disgraced rapper, Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The firing came as the Trump administration was dealing with the fallout of the so-called Epstein Files, and convicted sex offender Epstein’s former ties to Trump. The president has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the case.
Maurene Comey told her colleagues that she was not given a reason for her termination. She wrote in a memo: “Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought.”
September 2025:
James Comey is indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of making a false statement to Congress and obstructing its proceedings in 2020.
In a video posted to Instagram, the elder Comey noted the “costs” for standing up to the president.
“I’m not afraid, and I hope you aren’t either. My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I’m innocent,” he said. “So let’s have a trial and keep the faith.”
Minutes after he was indicted, his son-in-law, Troy Edwards, quit his job as a federal prosecutor.
“No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi wrote in a statement. “Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.”
Trump celebrated the indictment, writing on Truth Social: “JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI.”
Days earlier, the president had publicly urged Bondi to prosecute his political rivals, stating: “We can’t delay any longer.”
