Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein for POLITICO:
“A grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted Comey on Thursday on two felony charges stemming from Comey’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020 about the FBI’s investigation into links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
The obstruction of Congress charge accuses Comey of making “false statements” at that hearing, but is silent about what they were.
The false statement charge relates to Comey’s denial at the hearing that he authorized anyone at the FBI to speak to the media anonymously about FBI investigations related to Trump or his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton. Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe told investigators with DOJ’s inspector general that Comey authorized him to talk to a reporter about an aspect of an investigation the FBI conducted into the Clinton Foundation. …
Notably, a court document released Thursday night showed the same grand jury refused to indict Comey on a second charge of making a false statement to Congress. The charge jurors balked at pertained to a statement Comey made during the hearing where he appeared to deny having read a report sent to top FBI officials in September 2016 about the Clinton campaign’s interest in using Trump’s alleged Russia ties to distract from her own legal woes….
“Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia the Trump administration installed Monday, signed the indictment and was the only prosecutor listed on the docket as of Thursday evening. …
“Comey has selected as his defense attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, a longtime friend, former U.S. Attorney in Chicago and former DOJ special counsel.
“’Jim Comey denies the charges filed today in their entirety. We look forward to vindicating him in the courtroom,’ Fitzgerald said in a statement.
“Comey’s indictment immediately triggered alarm — inside and outside the Justice Department — that Trump had effectively ordered the prosecution of a political adversary, exacting retribution against a longtime foe he blames for his own years of criminal prosecution and impeachment.”