Even Fox News Thinks There's No Case in the James Comey Indictment

Donald Trump is weaponizing his Department of Justice against his political enemies. That’s the takeaway from the James Comey indictment. There is also a very high liklihood, however, that this will backfire on Trump when the charges don’t stick, not that it changes the fact that he’s still weaponizing the government against political enemies.

Preliminary Timeline: Around September 19, Erik S. Siebert — the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — resigned amid political pressure from Donald Trump to bring indictments against his opponents, including James Comey (Trump later claimed Siebert was fired, though Siebert said he resigned). Around that same time, Trump posted on Truth Social urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to “get” his political enemies, including Comey. The following day, Trump installed Lindsey Halligan — a former Trump lawyer and White House aide — into Siebert’s position. On September 25, an indictment from Halligan’s office was issued against former FBI Director James Comey.

What’s in the Indictment: The indictment accuses James Comey of lying under oath when he said he didn’t authorize “Person 3” to leak information to the Wall Street Journal. It also claims this false statement amounted to obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

What are the details: The indictment doesn’t name Person 3, but media reporting strongly suggests it was Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s Deputy Director under Comey and later Acting Director. McCabe was fired in 2018, hours before he was set to retire, after the Inspector General found he “lacked candor” in connection with a disclosure to the Wall Street Journal.

The indictment essentially suggests Comey lied when he denied authorizing McCabe to leak to the WSJ, relying on McCabe’s claim that Comey approved the disclosure. However, a 2018 Inspector General report did not find evidence that Comey authorized McCabe. In fact, the report concluded that “the overwhelming weight of the circumstantial evidence” supported Comey’s version — that he did not authorize McCabe. McCabe himself later said he told Comey about the disclosure only after it had already occurred.

In Other Words: It’s a he said/he said case. Comey denied authorizing McCabe to leak; McCabe gave conflicting accounts. The Inspector General found the evidence supported Comey’s denial. In short, the case against Comey relies on one witness: McCabe, a man fired for leaking to the WSJ and giving unreliable testimony.

It’s not just a flimsy case. There is no case. Even a Fox News pundit has said as much.

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What was the leak, anyway? Ironically, McCabe leaked to the WSJ that the FBI had resisted pressure from Obama’s DOJ to drop an investigation into the Clinton Foundation. It had nothing to do with Trump; in fact, exposing the Clinton Foundation investigation ahead of the 2016 election may have helped Trump.