Sorting out the Comey story
How can you tell who’s telling the truth about Comey and who’s lying? In this case, maybe all of them are lying. But Comey is probably telling even less of the truth about the matter than the others:
While [Horowitz] did not find that he disclosed the classified information, Horowitz found that Comey took “the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive investigative information, obtained during the course of FBI employment, in order to achieve a personally desired outcome.”
He further added that Comey “set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees …
Comey later admitted that he asked his friend, Columbia Law Professor Daniel Richman, to leak information from the documents to the New York Times.
Comey’s close associate, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, stated that Comey instructed him to leak information to the media. Comey denied that repeatedly under oath.
James Baker, FBI general counsel and a close adviser to Comey, also told investigators that he was “under the belief” that he was “ultimately instructed and authorized to [provide information to the Times] by then FBI Director James Comey.”
That sets up a straightforward question: Who is lying?
That’s written by Jonathan Turley, who goes on to add what Comey says about how he trapped General Flynn and had him prosecuted for lying to the FBI. I wrote many posts about that sorry episode, and this prosecution of Comey is poetic justice. Whether actual justice will come of it is another story; I have my doubts, since the trial will be in Virginia. I certainly hope the case against Comey is an extremely strong one, because otherwise the cries of “Revenge lawfare!” will grow even stronger – if such a thing be possible.
See Andy McCarthy here:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/09/the-indictment-against-comey-should-be-dismissed/
I fear that this is going to end up just as I’ve warned for some time. Revenge lawfare will fail. Comey will be acquitted (or the indictment will be thrown out as McCarthy predicts). Then Comey will be able to claim that he has been exonerated. Every time anyone tries to point out the gross (but probably not criminal) misconduct of James Comey, the reply will be “but he was acquitted!”
Smooth move MAGA.
Actually, the best possible result of this case for MAGA might be if the Biden-appointee judge throws out the indictment. Then MAGA can at least blame it on biased judges.
Also, John Hinderaker here:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/09/comey-indictment-looks-like-a-mistake.php
Not leaking! Indict him for perjury. He lied when he submitted the false dossier as evidence in the FISA court.
Whether he perjured himself in the Senate or not, he’s a smug pr*ck. And his treatment of Gen. Flynn was outrageous.
He deserves to be found guilty for those two things alone.
Andy McCarthy and John Hinderaker, that takes me back. Maybe we should get a quote from John Bolton, complete the set. But what does the Bulwark think, that’s what I want to know.
The persecution of General Flynn was atrocious. It’s a shame it is not much better known amongst Americans.
Niketas Choniates – Perhaps it should take you back to the time when the right actually listened to competent lawyers instead of washed up Fox News hosts and Trump’s personal lawyers.
Hinderaker points out that this indictment doesn’t address the full depth of the “Russia-gate” conspiracy. True. But it also doesn’t preclude charges there, either. It’s an opening salvo.
@Bauxite:Perhaps it should take you back to the time when the right actually listened to competent lawyers
Thus speaks the Swamp. Yes, those were the days weren’t they, when we knew our place and our betters ordered things to suit themselves. Plenty of pork and no responsibility in a comfortable minority….
A juror who votes guilty in that part of the world will have to change their name and go into witness protection. The opportunity to smite the Orange Hitler will be irresistable.
The often used term “the process is the punishment” comes to mind. Thus far Comey, et al haven’t even experienced mild discomfort. Time for some of their own medicine. No, I’m not “above that”. I don’t know if this sort of thing will restrain the Dems when they return to power or not. I do know that the pathway we have been taking has not worked. We would be foolish to continue that way.
We have reached a place in this country where opponents of the President can arguably commit crimes in DC or VA because no jury would convict them. The flipside of that is that Trump can be found guilty of made-up crimes in NYC.
And I know that the US Atty in DC couldn’t get a grand jury indictment against TWO people who threatened the President.
See Andy McCarthy here:
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Niketas Choniates – Perhaps it should take you back to the time when the right actually listened to competent lawyers instead of washed up Fox News hosts and Trump’s personal lawyers.
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The ‘competent lawyer’ you fancy quit practicing 22 years ago and has over a period of nine years established a track record of being slow on the uptake.
See Andy McCarthy here:
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Niketas Choniates – Perhaps it should take you back to the time when the right actually listened to competent lawyers instead of washed up Fox News hosts and Trump’s personal lawyers.
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The ‘competent lawyer’ you fancy quit practicing 22 years ago and has over a period of nine years established a track record of being slow on the uptake.
The Left and the Fake News are having a complete meltdown over this.
– A line was crossed.
– Political revenge.
– Trump is a dictator.
– Yada. Yada.
This from the same crowd who repeatedly said that “no one is above the law” and pursued Trump on fake criminal charges.
Game theory says that the Left has to see consequences for their lawfare or it will never stop.
https://pjmedia.com/kevindowneyjr/2025/09/26/one-little-twohundred-undercover-feds-at-j6-n4944137
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In what jurisdictions is Christopher Wray admitted? Good fun to go after his license .
Time to make them pay. “The process is the punishment”. What we’ve been doing hasn’t worked. New tactics must be at least tried. No, I’m most definitely “above that”. Sue me.
I want to see Comey in cuffs, orange jumpsuit and in jail.
I might have a little party to watch
I can’t help but wonder if there was something in those burn bags Patel found a while ago.
@ Voice – Good point; I doubt that Patel has released everything found, although what he has released is certainly vindicating the Republicans and others who were derided for their claims about the Democrat conspiracy (because it really was one) to take down Trump before and after his election.
Is Patel going to reveal anything, to make Comey et al sweat a little, or save it for the trial. So far the Grand Jury hasn’t leaked anything AFAIK, but they may have been shown something, although the already-known hi-jinx by Comey were certainly enough for an indictment, as Turley laid out.
Other reports:
“Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent James A. Gagliano served under four FBI directors from 1991-2016.”
https://nypost.com/2025/09/26/opinion/the-james-comey-i-knew-at-the-fbi-fully-deserves-whatever-comeuppance-is-in-store/
This next one has an odd URL; the headline is a more accurate summary of the text:
“James Comey could face more charges as DOJ sifts through evidence — but will case stick?”
I have no idea what the “two words” are; they aren’t identified as such.
My reading of the post (IANAL) is that the deadline came up before the legal team had finished compiling all the data for their case, so they took what they had and ran with it
Predictions about what the judge and jury will do are a bit premature, although the track record in blue states is not good for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
https://nypost.com/2025/09/26/us-news/these-two-words-led-to-federal-indictment-of-james-comey-as-ex-prosecutors-predict-former-fbi-chief-will-beat-perjury-rap/
Remember this paragraph; I will come back to it later:
“Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani predicted of the Trump DOJ: “I think they lose this case,” noting, “If the DOJ cared about this leak, they would have prosecuted it during the first Trump administration.” –”
Somebody seems to have convinced President Trump to quit talking.
https://nypost.com/2025/09/26/us-news/trump-predicts-there-will-be-others-after-james-comey-indictment/
“…, but denies having ‘list’ of enemies to prosecute”
At the end of the post, the authors reference the revelations from the FBI burn bag, so there may still be things Patel hasn’t made public.
“Documents on Arctic Haze were recently declassified by FBI Director Kash Patel, who also recovered other damning records related to Russigate in “burn bags” at the FBI’s Washington Field Office shortly after starting on the job.
Mike Davis, a lawyer and close Trump ally, told The Post Friday that he expects a superseding indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia that may target others involved in the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign.”
This one doesn’t need a lot of commentary here. The NY Post editors do a good job laying out all the ways that the Democrats used lawfare against Trump, including statements by Biden every bit as “interfering” as any of Trump’s Truth Social posts.
https://nypost.com/2025/09/26/opinion/democrats-destroyed-the-norms-they-want-trump-to-follow/
“How convenient, this amnesia about their own norm-smashing.
… Do we like having a political system based on giving as good as you got, and hitting back twice as hard?
Not at all. But the gang that prepared this poisoned feast can’t cry when they have to eat it too.”
Back to that statement above: “If the DOJ cared about this leak, they would have prosecuted it during the first Trump administration.”
My reaction then was “give me a break; where were YOU in 2016-2020?” and this post supports that:
“And some partisans stayed on through the entire Trump presidency: The FBI had the Hunter Biden laptop more than a year before The Post got access — yet instead of following the many leads, the bureau organized a campaign of lies to discredit any news stories that might come out before the election.”
Trump’s team is not making the same mistake, but are kicking out the Democrat partisans as fast as they can get to them, in what looks to me to be an orderly checklist of the organizations to weed out.
So I’m waiting to see what Hegseth does with the generals.
My only concern about their big in-person gathering would be a big strike on them by one of our enemies, or a coalition. We know there are now plenty of Chinese, Russian, Iranian South American cartel etc. agents in the US, but can they pull something together in a week?
None of them are Mossad, with ten-year-old fake pager ops.
We hope.
OTOH, why would any of them want to kill the flag officers who have done more to destroy our armed forces than they have?
The problem faced by Trump/Bondi/Patel in regards to RussiaGate is that most of the action was 9 years ago, and there is a 5 year statute of limitations for almost any conceivable offense. The exception is for perjury (and Obstruction of Justice), that happened more recently.Under Comey, the top tier of the FBI strategically leaked routinely. His Deputy, Andrew McCabe, was one of the worst, as well as being one of the main ones behind RussiaGate. It was very often illegal, but they were the FBI, so they knew that they were relatively safe doing it.
Much of the RussiaGate, and related, leaking has come out and been validated. The problem is that only Comey, and only in certain circumstances, was legally empowered to leak to the press. The question here was whether Comey authorized leaking case related information to the MSM. McCabe, and his RussiaGate (etc) cohorts said that he did, in their defense. And Comey said that he didn’t. All under oath. I have felt all along that McCabe, in particular, and everyone else in general, played Comey as a dupe. As DD, McCabe was in charge of the day-to-day operation of the FBI. So, much of what went on was probably Comey signing off on what McCabe put in front of him.
In any case, much of the Comey case seems to revolve around sworn testimony by McCabe and others that Comey authorized their actions, most noticeably, their leaking. So, I think that the prosecution will, by necessity, have to put them on the stand (under oath) to build their case against Comey. They are locked into their previous statements (under oath), so will be mostly forced to repeat them. But if Comey is found not guilty, then McCabe (etc) lied anew, under oath, and Comey can be called as a witness against them in their own perjury cases, for claiming, anew, that he had authorized the leaks. Which then lets the DOJ prosecute McCabe (etc), whose offenses are otherwise outside the statute of limitations.
Win/win. It should be interesting.
mcarthy really has become a punchline at this point, he vouched for Richman, back in 2017, as he has for every malefactor for the last 20 years, he really did think Pat Fitzgerald, was an honorable man,* as for Mueller, Comey, Smith et al, he’s as naive about domestic law enforcement as he was about certain middle east actors some thirty ago, he gained some insight on that score,
*not in the cicero sense,
one recalls in the obama years, they subpoenaed journalists like james risen in the sterling case, (that was all too clever exercise about providing bomb designs to Iranian, Rosen with the Korean sanctions, a host of AP reporters to cover for Brennan’s leak, they then found a way to blame a junior bureau contractor for the leak of the asset in the Al Queda operation,
the problem is akin to that snippet from the andromeda strain, when a mechanical malfunction prevented instruction to filter out the same press that enabled these scams like ken dilanian now report on this matter, and provide the Iowahawk pillows
Hints regarding some “superceding indicment” making this first action against Comey a placeholding charge (to be folded into that subsequent act) are beginning to pop up in various places. Rumors — at this stage — to be sure, but nevertheless bearing indications of purposeful placement. We’ll have to wait and see whether (and how if at all) this develops.
Which of America’s core Institutions haven’t been corrupted by Democrats?
They certainly were ahead of the train by making the DC circuit their “get of jail” card.