#james-comey
4 entries with this tag
After Watching Its Earlier Indictments of James Comey Collapse, Trump's Justice Department Charged the Former FBI Director Yet Again — This Time With Two Espionage Act Counts Over an Alleged 2016 Leak of National-Defense Information to a Reporter — but Filed It as a Bare "Criminal Information" on the Very Last Day Before the Ten-Year Clock Ran Out, Without a Grand Jury, a Maneuver Legal Experts Say Likely Cannot Stop the Statute of Limitations and That Comey Can Simply Refuse to Consent To
On October 26, 2026, newly unsealed court documents revealed that the Trump Justice Department had charged former FBI Director James Comey for a third time — now with two counts under the Espionage Act: willfully communicating national-defense information to a person not entitled to receive it, and conspiring to do so. The theory is that Comey, "through one or more co-conspirators," directed someone to disclose national-defense information to a reporter at a national news publication (reported to be the New York Times), with the alleged conduct dated to October 5, 2016. The problem is the calendar and the procedure. The Espionage Act carries a ten-year statute of limitations, which expired on October 5, 2026 — and the DOJ filed not a grand-jury indictment but a bare "criminal information" on that exact last day, apparently because it could not get a grand jury to indict in time. Legal experts, including former prosecutor Elie Honig, say an information filed without a grand jury or the defendant's consent likely cannot toll the ten-year clock, and Comey cannot be tried on an information alone unless he waives indictment — which he has no reason to do. His lawyers moved to dismiss, arguing the statute "explicitly demands" an indictment that the government never secured and that the charge is time-barred. Comey's response was a shrug: "Nothing's changed with me." He is still innocent, he said. This is the third swing at the man Trump fired in 2017, after the earlier cases — including the one built around a photo of seashells — fell apart, and it has the hallmarks of the previous ones: a prosecution driven by the president's grudge rather than a case the government can actually win.
A Federal Judge Ruled That Trump's Justice Department Unlawfully Fired Maurene Comey — the Veteran Prosecutor Who Handled the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell Cases, and the Daughter of James Comey — Ordering Her Reinstated With Back Pay After the DOJ Admitted in Court the Firing Was Not for Cause or Performance; the Ruling Came the Same Week the DOJ Charged Her Father for a Third Time
On October 26, 2026, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ruled that the Justice Department had unlawfully fired Maurene Comey — a career federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York known for handling the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell prosecutions, and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, a longtime target of President Trump. Furman ordered her reinstated, retroactive to the date of her dismissal, with back pay and restored pension benefits, and directed that her personnel file be changed to reflect a resignation rather than a firing. The ruling rested mainly on the Civil Service Reform Act, with the judge also finding separation-of-powers, Administrative Procedure Act, and due-process violations. The most damning fact came from the government's own filings: the DOJ acknowledged in court that the firing was not for cause and not based on performance — it simply asserted the attorney general had sweeping Article II authority to remove her at will. Furman rejected that claim. A May 2026 filing reportedly identified Attorney General Pam Bondi as the official who directed the firing, though the judge said the decision-maker question remained partly disputed, and he did not rule on whether political retaliation was the motive. The timing told its own story: the reinstatement of the daughter, for a firing the government conceded had no legitimate cause, landed the very same week the Justice Department charged her father, James Comey, for the third time.
Trump Campaigned on Ending the "Weaponization" of the Justice Department — Then Turned It Into an Instrument for Prosecuting His Enemies: His Acting AG Says Trump Has a "Right" and "Duty" to Order Investigations, a Trump-Loyalist "Grand Conspiracy" Grand Jury in Florida Is Hunting His Foes, and 100+ Career Prosecutors Have Quit
A Democratic member of Congress, appearing on NBC's "Hallie Jackson NOW" on July 31, 2026, said Trump is "hellbent" on controlling the Justice Department and is "personally directing" the cases the department is bringing against his political opponents. The charge is not speculation; it is the documented operating principle of the DOJ under acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. In his first press conference as acting AG, Blanche said Trump has both a "right" and a "duty" to order the department to investigate his enemies — and when asked how he would square that with Trump's own executive order claiming to end the "weaponization" of government, he said he would not. Under Blanche, the DOJ has: re-indicted former FBI Director James Comey (after Trump publicly forced out the prosecutor who found insufficient evidence, installed his own former personal lawyer, and got an indictment within days — later dismissed, then refiled over a social-media post of seashells spelling "86 47"); pursued New York Attorney General Letitia James, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, former CIA Director John Brennan, members of Congress, and a probe into California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife; and stood up a "grand conspiracy" grand jury in the Trump-friendly Southern District of Florida — led by 2020-election-denier Joe diGenova — to hunt Obama- and Biden-era officials as an anti-Trump cabal. More than 100 career prosecutors have resigned, many citing political interference. A Marquette poll found 55% of Americans believe the DOJ has filed unjustified cases against Trump's opponents. The thing Trump said he would stop, he built.
White House Secretly Pressured the Board Meant to Protect Civil Servants — Sherk Told MSPB Head to Follow "the Company Line," Board Then Broke with Decades of Precedent, and 50,000 Workers Lost Protections
A New York Times investigation by Michael Schmidt reveals that the Trump White House secretly pressured the Merit Systems Protection Board — the independent agency created after Nixonian abuses to protect federal employees from political firings — into adopting the administration's theory that the president can fire any civil servant at will. White House aide James Sherk, author of the Schedule F memo and a man who has said "every federal employee should serve at the pleasure of the president," met with acting MSPB head Henry Kerner while Kerner was being considered for a permanent position. Sherk told Kerner he was expected to follow the Office of Legal Counsel's opinions on unitary executive theory — described by experts as "little different from calling a federal judge and telling him how to rule." The MSPB then broke with decades of precedent and ruled that it could weigh in on constitutional questions in a way that effectively endorsed the president's power to fire employees without cause. This followed Trump firing Democratic MSPB member Cathy Harris in February 2025 — converting the bipartisan board into one controlled by his appointees — and the Supreme Court blocking her reinstatement via shadow docket. On March 9, 2026, the Schedule Policy/Career rule took effect, stripping civil service protections from up to 50,000 federal workers, making them at-will employees who cannot appeal firings to the MSPB, cannot access statutory whistleblower protections, and cannot challenge their reclassification. An initial executive order reclassified about 8,000 positions. When DOJ prosecutor Maureen Comey (daughter of James Comey) was fired via an Article II letter, a federal judge ruled she could bypass the compromised MSPB and sue directly in federal court — finding the constitutional basis for her firing placed her case "outside the universe" Congress intended the MSPB to resolve. The D.C. Circuit dissent warned: "Under my colleagues' reasoning, it appears that no independent agencies may lawfully exist in this country."