Justice Department to try to charge ex-FBI Director James Comey, AP
sources say
[September 25, 2025]
By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is preparing to ask a grand
jury as soon as Thursday to indict former FBI Director James Comey on
allegations that he lied to Congress as prosecutors approach a legal
deadline for bringing charges, according to two people familiar with the
matter.
Officials are hoping to file the case in the Eastern District of
Virginia days after President Donald Trump appealed to his attorney
general to charge Comey and other perceived political adversaries, and
following Trump's replacement last week of the office's top prosecutor
with a White House aide who had served as one of his personal lawyers.
Prosecutors have been evaluating whether Comey lied to lawmakers during
his Sept. 30, 2020, testimony related to the investigation into ties
between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The five-year
statute of limitations for bringing a case would be next Tuesday, but
the Justice Department is expected to seek an indictment before a grand
jury before then, said the two people, who were not authorized to
discuss an investigation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to
The Associated Press.
The push to move forward comes even as prosecutors detailed in a memo
concerns about proceeding with seeking an indictment, one of the people
said.
Comey's lawyer declined to comment Wednesday and said he had not heard
any updates from the Justice Department.
If prosecutors are successful in obtaining an indictment, Comey would
become the first former senior government official to face prosecution
in connection with one of the president’s chief grievances — the
long-concluded investigation into Russia’s election interference that
Trump and his supporters have long derided as a “hoax” and “witch hunt”
despite multiple government reviews showing Moscow meddled on his
campaign’s behalf in 2016.
Any criminal case would almost certainly deepen concerns that the
Justice Department under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi, a
Trump loyalist, is being weaponized as it pursues investigations of
public figures the president regards as his adversaries.
Comey, who was fired as FBI director by Trump months into his first
administration, has long been a top target for Trump supporters seeking
retribution. Comey was singled out by name in a social media post
Saturday night in which Trump complained directly to Bondi that she had
not yet brought charges against him,
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Former FBI director James Comey is sworn in before testifying via
videoconference during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on
Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 30, 2020. (Stefani Reynolds/Pool
via AP, File)
The White House has moved in recent months to exert control in
unprecedented ways over a Justice Department that has historically
enjoyed independence in prosecutorial decision-making. The office
investigating Comey was thrown into turmoil last week following the
resignation of its U.S. Attorney, Erik Siebert, amid Trump
administration pressure to bring charges against another of the
president’s foes, New York Attorney General Letitia James, in a
mortgage fraud investigation.
Trump replaced Siebert with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide who
earlier represented Trump in the investigation into his retention of
classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida but who
lacks the federal criminal experience that historically accompanies
the job of running one of the Justice Department's most elite
prosecution offices.
A grand jury would have to approve any indictment, and though that's
generally a low bar in the criminal justice system, the Trump
Justice Department has encountered repeated setbacks in recent
months, particularly in pursuing charges related to Trump's law
enforcement intervention in Washington, D.C.
It was not clear what statements to Congress prosecutors might be
zeroing in on, and the strength of any case prosecutors might seek
to bring is also unclear.
The government's handling of the Trump-Russia investigation is among
the most studied chapters of modern American history, with multiple
reviews and reports dedicated to it, and yet prosecutors have not
pursued cases against senior FBI officials.
Prosecutors in the first Trump Justice Department declined to
prosecute Comey following an inspector general review into his
handling of memos documenting his conversations with Trump in the
weeks before he was fired. He also was not charged by a special
counsel, John Durham, who scrutinized the FBI's handling of the
Trump-Russia investigation and was conducting his inquiry at the
time Comey gave his testimony.
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