Federal prosecutors in Virginia are expecting to ask a grand jury to criminally indict former FBI Director James Comey at the behest of the Trump administration as early as Thursday, according to two sources who spoke to NOTUS on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia in recent weeks has been probing whether Comey could be criminally charged over his Sept. 30, 2020, congressional testimony about his handling of the Trump—Russia investigation — and whether he’d authorized a friend who teaches law at Columbia University to disclose details to news reporters, according to both sources mentioned above and a third person familiar with law enforcement efforts. Investigators are under time pressure because a five-year statute of limitations is about to expire Oct. 1, these people said.
MSNBC News first reported the development, citing three sources familiar with the matter.
During Comey’s 2020 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Ted Cruz questioned the former FBI director about his previous 2017 sworn assertions before the panel that he’d “never” been an anonymous source for news reports about the Trump investigation.
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“So, your testimony is you’ve never authorized anyone to leak?” Cruz asked, pointing out that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified differently.
“Again, I’m not going to characterize Andy’s testimony, but mine is the same today,” Comey said.
The effort to pursue charges against Comey is now being overseen by the newly-appointed top federal prosecutor in Virginia’s Eastern District, Lindsey Halligan, a former personal attorney for President Donald Trump who defended him from criminal charges over his hoarding of classified records at Mar-a-Lago and later became a White House lawyer in his second administration. She has no experience prosecuting crimes and spent most of her early career defending home insurance companies in Florida. A fourth source familiar with Halligan’s appointment said she was put in place with explicit expectations to exact Trump’s revenge on Comey and other people the president considers political enemies.
Halligan did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment.
Four sources who have familiarity with the prosecution effort told NOTUS that Brian Samuels, criminal chief for the U.S. attorney’s office in Virginia’s Eastern District, has been working on the Comey investigation, conducting interviews and building the case.
One of the sources familiar with the prosecution effort described Samuels as a “well-respected criminal chief in Norfolk” with a reputation for being “a straight shooter and a great guy.”
Trump has been openly hostile with Comey ever since the longtime law enforcement official oversaw the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s links to Russian state interests that stretched from the closing months of his 2016 presidential campaign into the start of his first administration. Trump in 2020 said Comey “should be tried for treason” and in May called him a “dirty cop.”
But when Eastern Virginia’s acting U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert in recent days reportedly resisted filing criminal charges against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, Trump fired him and publicly instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action on Comey, James and Sen. Adam Schiff, writing that “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” Halligan replaced Siebert this week.
Despite that official Comey investigation going nowhere, two people familiar with the probe told NOTUS they’ve heard Halligan is attempting to have a grand jury indict the former FBI director in the coming days.
“The fact that the [previous] U.S. attorney decided not to indict the case tells you all you need to know. They had to bring a U.S. attorney who’s an insurance lawyer,” one of those people said.
The office declined to comment on the prosecution effort.
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