James Comey's road to federal prosecution

PUBLISHED: October 8, 2025 | www.baltimoresun.com

Former FBI Director James Comey was arraigned in federal court on Wednesday following his indictment on charges of providing a false statement to Congress and for obstruction of a congressional proceeding over his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 30, 2020.

Federal prosecutors asserted that during the hearing on the notorious Operation Crossfire Hurricane, in which Comey used entirely unreliable evidence that was a product of the Clinton campaign as one of the foundations for investigating Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, he falsely asserted that he did not authorize a critical leak. However, Andrew McCabe, Comey’s deputy, publicly acknowledged leaking information to the Wall Street Journal regarding an FBI investigation (an October 2016 article on Hillary Clinton’s charitable foundation) with Comey’s knowledge and consent.

The indictment uses these claims as evidence of Comey’s obstruction of the Senate proceedings. You see, it is one thing to assert that this was merely an obscure, insignificant falsehood; yet, the reality is that it possessed the potential to alter the outcome of the 2016 election. The particular leak pertained to information provided to the Wall Street Journal concerning an FBI inquiry into the Clinton Foundation, published just days prior to the 2016 presidential election. This was crucial as it garnered increased public and media scrutiny of the probe, potentially affecting voter sentiment during a pivotal period in the electoral cycle.

Some view this as political payback for Comey’s handling of Trump-related investigations. That said, there’s little doubt that his overall actions with respect to the Clinton emails and Russian collusion investigation may have benefited both Trump and Clinton with parity.

This series of leaks and letters at a critical time prior to the election makes this clear. On Oct. 28, 2016, 11 days before the election, Comey notified Congress that the FBI had discovered additional Clinton-related emails and would review them; on Nov. 6, he said the review did not change the prior decision. Clinton has argued that this late-October letter, combined with the release of hacked emails by WikiLeaks, hurt her campaign: “I was on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28th and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off. And the evidence for the intervening event is, I think, compelling, persuasive.”

No matter the perspective, Comey’s mishandling of the Russian collusion investigation generated a nationwide uproar that adversely affected both Trump’s and Clinton’s reputations. If this is political revenge, then Clinton may be silently applauding.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

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