Justice Department defends Trump's post as it urges judge to reject
Comey's effort to dismiss case
[November 04, 2025]
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department urged a federal judge Monday to
reject James Comey’s claim that his prosecution amounts to political
retribution, arguing the former FBI director has failed to show that
he’s being targeted as punishment for his criticism of the Republican
president.
Prosecutors defended President Donald Trump’s September social media
post demanding that action be taken in the Comey investigation,
contending it reflects “legitimate prosecutorial motive” and is no basis
to dismiss the indictment accusing Comey of lying to Congress in 2020.
The filing underscores how Trump's comments have put the Justice
Department in a difficult position as Comey and other defendants seize
on the president's remarks in efforts to have their cases dismissed
ahead of trial. Comey’s lawyers told the judge last month that the
charges must be thrown out because they were brought out of “personal
spite” at the direction of the president. A lawyer for New York Attorney
General Letitia James, another Trump foe who's been charged in a
mortgage fraud investigation, has signaled that he will make a similar
argument.
The Justice Department acknowledged that Trump's social media posts
reflect the president's view that Comey “committed crimes that should be
met with prosecution" and “may even suggest that the President disfavors
the defendant." But, prosecutors argued, there is ”not direct evidence
of a vindictive motive."
“The defendant spins a tale that requires leaps of logic and a big dose
of cynicism, then he calls the President’s post a direct admission,”
prosecutors wrote. “There is no direct admission of discriminatory
purpose. To the contrary, the only direct admission from the President
is that DOJ officials decided whether to prosecute, not him.”
The dispute concerns arguably the most closely watched of several
challenges Comey has brought over the indictment, with Comey's attorneys
citing not only Trump's public demands for prosecutions of his perceived
enemies but also his longtime disdain for the former FBI director, whom
he fired during his first term amid the Russia election interference
investigation.
Patrick Fitzgerald, the former U.S. attorney in Chicago and a longtime
Comey friend, has argued that Trump’s social media post calling on
Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey and other longtime foes
“constitutes a direct admission of discriminatory purpose to single out
a perceived political enemy.”
The defense is separately challenging the appointment of the White House
aide who was brought in as U.S. attorney after the head of the elite
office handling the investigation was pushed out by the Trump
administration.
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The indictment came days after Trump installed Lindsey Halligan, a
White House aide who had been one of Trump’s personal lawyers but
had no prior experience as a federal prosecutor, as the U.S.
attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to replace Erik
Siebert. Trump announced his support for Halligan one day after
Siebert resigned as U.S. attorney amid administration pressure to
charge Comey and James.
Comey’s lawyers last week asked to review transcripts and audio
recordings of grand jury proceedings in the case, saying factual and
legal errors may have been presented to the grand jury that returned
the indictment, which could warrant the charges being thrown out.
The case accuses Comey of lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee on
Sept. 30, 2020, in response to questions about whether he had
authorized FBI leaks to members of the news media.
The government’s filing lays out a litany of messages between Comey
and Daniel Richman, a close friend and Columbia University law
professor, meant to show that Richman engaged with reporters on
Comey's behalf and communicated the then-FBI director's perspective
on politically fraught issues such as the bureau's investigation
during the 2016 presidential election into Democratic nominee
Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as Secretary of
State.
The filing notes that after Comey was fired, he asked Richman — who
had also served as an FBI special government employee — to share
with a reporter the contents of a memorandum he had written
documenting a one-on-one conversation Comey had with Trump.
Prosecutors, pointing to the interactions with Richman, say Comey
lied to the Senate panel about whether he had authorized disclosures
about those investigations to reporters.
But Comey’s lawyers say the case must be dismissed because the
questions Comey responded to, from Sen. Ted Cruz, were so vague and
ambiguous that it was impossible for Comey to have had the necessary
intent to lie.
They note, for instance, that the windup to Cruz’s questions about
whether Comey had given the green light for news media disclosures
did not mention Richman but were instead about another individual,
former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
“In doing so, Senator Cruz never indicated that he wanted Mr. Comey
to address the statements or activities of any person except for Mr.
McCabe,” Comey's lawyers said.
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