Donald Trump declared on Thursday that James Comey almost initiated a conflict with Crossfire Hurricane, the extensive and ultimately unsuccessful investigation into Russian collusion.

Trump labeled Comey as ‘one of the worst individuals this country has ever encountered’ after the former FBI director was charged with making false statements and obstructing justice.

‘Comey cast a shadow over the whole country, and indeed, the entire Russia investigation made things very challenging,’ Trump stated to Fox News on Thursday evening.

The president then added: ‘It could have caused wars.’ 

The charges for Comey were related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 30, 2020 on what was known as ‘Crossfire Hurricane.

The grand jury declined to indict Comey on a third count, which was an additional charge of making false statements, according to court documents.  

Comey defiantly responded by saying he’s ‘not afraid’ and called Trump a ‘tyrant’ as he portrayed the charges as politically-motivated retribution.

It was also revealed on Thursday that the case was rushed to an indictment by MAGA’s newest legal star just days after she was appointed because the case faced a crucial deadline.

Lindsey Halligan, 36, a former beauty queen, was appointed US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after her predecessor Erik Siebert was ousted last week.

She was in a race against the clock to file the charges as the case against Comey was nearing a statue of limitations that expired next Tuesday, according to The New York Times.

Halligan filed the criminal charges on direct orders from Trump and against the advice of subordinates and Siebert.

‘The charges as alleged in this case represent a breach of the public trust at an extraordinary level,’ said Halligan in a statement. 

‘The balance of power is a bedrock principal (sic) of our democracy, and it relies upon accountability and a forthright presentation of facts from executive leadership to congressional oversight.’ 

Siebert’s office led a criminal probe involving Comey and his role in the FBI’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign. The former US attorney privately told Justice Department officials he lacked strong evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

The president continued to unload on Comey Thursday evening and suggested further indictments could be coming. 

‘What they did was so terrible and so corrupt,’ Trump said of those involved in the Russia probe. ‘We had a great administration, though.’  

Trump was also asked if former CIA head John Brennan could be next, but merely said: ‘We’ll have to see what happens.’

‘It is up to the Justice Department, but I can tell you, it is a group of people that was very disappointing. This makes Watergate look like peanuts. They tried to destroy our country.’ 

Comey lashed out at Trump after the indictment, calling him ‘a tyrant’ and challenging him to a trial after the president’s DOJ indicted him in an Instagram video.  

‘Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant and she’s right but I’m not afraid and I hope you’re not either,’ Comey said on Instagram.  

‘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.’

 

‘I hope instead you’re engaged, you’re paying attention and you will vote like your beloved country depends on it, which it does,’ Comey continued. 

‘My heart is broken for the Department of Justice but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system. I’m innocent, so let’s have a trial and keep the faith,’ added Comey. 

In a statement to The Daily Mail, Comey’s attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said: ‘Jim Comey denies the charges filed today in their entirety. We look forward to vindicating him in the courtroom.’ 

Donald Trump celebrated the indictment on Truth Social by calling Comey ‘one of the worst human beings in this Country.’

Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the charges in a post to social media Thursday evening. 

‘No one is above the law,’ she wrote. ‘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.’ 

In a statement to The Daily Mail, Comey’s attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said: ‘Jim Comey denies the charges filed today in their entirety. We look forward to vindicating him in the courtroom.’

 

In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump said: ‘I fired him [Siebert], and there is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so.’

Now, she’s going after Trump’s greatest domestic enemy.

‘The charges as alleged in this case represent a breach of the public trust at an extraordinary level,’ said U.S. Attorney Halligan in a statement. 

‘The balance of power is a bedrock principal of our democracy, and it relies upon accountability and a forthright presentation of facts from executive leadership to congressional oversight. Any intent to avoid, evade, prevent, or obstruct compliance is a violation of professional responsibility and, most importantly, the law.’ 

The case stems from a 2017 incident where Comey, who was FBI director at the time, shared seven memos documenting private conversations he had with Trump.

Comey then gave those to his friend, Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman, who leaked details to the New York Times. This report led to Robert Mueller being appointed special counsel to probe whether Trump colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

In September 2020, Comey was brought before Congress to discuss Crossfire Hurricane – the codename for the Trump-Russia investigation.

He was pressed by Republicans about leaks at the FBI during his tenure, including the memos.

Comey denied that he authorized anyone to disclose the memos to the media, stating of his friend: ‘I had no idea he was going to do that.’

While Comey has been investigated for lying to Congress in the past, he had not been convicted. 

A 2019 DOJ Inspector General report found that he improper leaked, but declined prosecution because Comey’s denial was ‘narrow.’ 

The indictment makes Comey the first former senior government official to face prosecution in connection with one of Trump´s chief grievances: the long-concluded investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

Trump and his supporters have long derided that investigation as a ‘hoax’ and a ‘witch hunt’ despite multiple government reviews showing Moscow interfered on behalf of the Republican´s campaign.

The criminal case is likely to deepen concerns that the Justice Department under Bondi, a Trump loyalist, is being weaponized in pursuit of investigations and now prosecutions of public figures the president regards as his political enemies. 

It was filed as the White House has taken steps to exert influence in unprecedented ways on the operations of the Justice Department, blurring the line between law and politics for an agency where independence in prosecutorial decision-making is a foundational principle.

Comey was fired months into Trump´s first administration and has long been a top target for Trump supporters seeking retribution. 

He was singled out by name in a Saturday social media post in which Trump complained directly to Bondi that she had not yet brought charges against him. 

The following evening, Trump said in a Truth Social post aimed at the attorney general that department investigations had not resulted in prosecutions.

Trump has for years railed against both a finding by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia preferred him to Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election and the criminal investigation that tried to determine whether his campaign had conspired with Moscow to sway the outcome of that race. 

Prosecutors led by special counsel Robert Mueller did not establish that Trump or his associates criminally colluded with Russia, but they did find that Trump´s campaign had welcomed Moscow´s assistance.

Trump has seized on the fact that Mueller´s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign and the Kremlin colluded, and that there were significant errors and omissions made by the FBI in wiretap applications, to claim vindication. 

A years-long investigation into potential misconduct during the Russia investigation, was conducted by a different special counsel, John Durham.

That produced three criminal cases, including against an FBI lawyer, but not against senior government officials.

The criminal case against Comey does not concern the substance of the Russia investigation. 

Rather, it accuses him of having lied to a Senate committee in his 2020 appearance when he said he never authorized anyone to serve as an anonymous source to a reporter about the investigation.

Trump´s administration is trying to cast the Russia investigation as the outgrowth of an effort under Democratic President Barack Obama to overhype Moscow´s interference in the election and to undermine the legitimacy of Trump´s victory. 

Administration officials, including CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, have declassified a series of documents meant to chip away at the strength of an Obama-era intelligence assessment published in January 2017 that said Moscow had engaged in a broad campaign of interference at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Comey has for years been a prime Trump antagonist. Comey was a senior Justice Department official in Republican President George W. Bush´s administration, was picked by Obama to lead the FBI in 2013 and was director when the bureau opened the Russia investigation.

Comey´s relationship with Trump was strained from the start and was exacerbated when Comey resisted a request by Trump at a private White House dinner to pledge personal loyalty to the president. That overture so unnerved the FBI director that he documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum.

Trump fired Comey in May 2017, an action later investigated by Mueller for potential obstruction of justice.

After being let go, Comey authorized a close friend to share with a reporter the substance of an unclassified memo that documented an Oval Office request from Trump to shut down an FBI investigation into his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. 

Trump and his allies later branded Comey a leaker, with the president even accusing him of treason. 

Comey himself has called Trump ‘ego driven’ and likened him to a mafia don.

The Justice Department, during Trump´s first term, declined to prosecute Comey over his handling of his memos. 

The department´s inspector general did issue a harshly critical report in 2019 that said Comey violated FBI policies, including by failing to return the documents to the FBI after he was dismissed and for sharing them with his personal lawyers without FBI permission.

Earlier this year, the department fired Comey´s daughter, Maurene Comey, from her job as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. 

She has since sued, saying the termination was carried out without any explanation and was done for political reasons. 

Critics call the continued prosecution of Comey by Halligan politicized and have pointed to her ties to defending Trump in past cases.

But Comey has also instigated the president. 

On May 15, 2025, he posted a photo on Instagram showing seashells arranged to form the message, ‘8647.’ He captioned the image with: ‘Cool shell formation on my beach walk.’

It was deleted just hours later after Trump allies interpreted it as a code calling for the 47th president’s assassination. The service industry slang to ’86’ something is to get rid of it. 

Comey insisted he was unaware of any political meaning and said he opposed violence. 

But DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced Secret Service launched an investigation and the former FBI Director voluntarily sat for an hour interview with the president’s protective detail.