Former FBI Director James Comey said Monday he fully expects Donald Trump to “come after me again” after his indictment was tossed, even as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the United States will appeal the judge’s ruling.
He blasted the case as “malevolence and incompetence and a reflection of what the Department of Justice has become under President Trump,” according to the video he posted online.
He said the dismissal proves “a message has to be sent” that a president cannot turn the DOJ into a weapon against political rivals.
He added, “I’m innocent, I am not afraid, and I believe in an independent federal judiciary.”
The Trump-era DOJ charged Comey with lying to Congress in 2020, alleging he misled lawmakers about his oversight of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation and concealed his knowledge of intelligence used to justify surveillance of Trump campaign figures.
Prosecutors accused him of offering technical, evasive answers to shield his role in disputed investigative steps and provide a distorted account of internal FBI disagreements.
They also said he knowingly withheld key information during his Sept. 30, 2020, testimony in what they argued amounted to deliberate deception.
Comey insisted throughout that the transcript showed he gave “literally true” answers and said the charges were nothing more than an attempt to criminalize political disagreements.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie dismissed the case after ruling that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan had no legal authority to serve as interim U.S. attorney because she had exceeded the 120-day limit, a defect rendering her actions invalid.
The judge struck down both Comey’s and New York Attorney General Letitia James’s indictments “without prejudice,” though legal analysts noted the statute of limitations in Comey’s case has already run out.
Leavitt said the administration would appeal because “the American people deserve accountability,” accusing the court of misreading the law governing Halligan’s appointment.
The Comey-Trump feud dates to 2016, when Comey oversaw the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane probe into Trump campaign Russia contacts and Trump publicly labeled the investigation a “witch hunt.” reports say.
Comey later said Trump demanded his personal “loyalty,” pressed him to drop the Michael Flynn case and fired him on May 9, 2017, a move Trump later linked on television to “this Russia thing.”
Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during presidential transition period, a case that later became central to Trump’s accusations of FBI misconduct and Comey’s claims of presidential pressure.
Trump has repeatedly called Comey a “liar,” “slimeball,” and “leaker,” while Comey has cast Trump as a threat to democratic norms and the rule of law.
For her part, James responded to the dismissal by saying she remains “fearless” and called the charges “baseless,” as reported by Axios.
She vowed before supporters, “I will not bow and I will not break,” a defiant promise captured by the New York Post.
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