James Comey: From FBI Director to Indicted Over Trump Threats

Former FBI Director James Comey has been in the news again recently, and not for good reasons. In September 2025, the Department of Justice announced an indictment charging Comey with making a false statement to Congress and obstruction tied to his September 30, 2020, testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Comey was indicted by a grand jury on two counts, allegedly making false statements during Congressional hearings, perjury, and obstruction of justice. The public explanation was a revisiting of the seashell controversy, where it is alleged that Comey threatened President Trump through the 8647 Instagram post, which prosecutors said a reasonable recipient could interpret as a serious threat against President Trump. Attorney General Todd Blanch stated the 11-month investigation by the FBI and DOJ has uncovered a mountain of damning evidence. To date, Comey has denied violent intent or of committing previous crimes, and legal commentators have questioned whether prosecutors can prove criminal intent on the 8647 issue. But is this the real reason for the indictment, much of which has yet to be released to the public? The evidence indicates no, so let's find out why. Who is James Comey? How did he become controversial? What federal laws did he allegedly violate? Why did it take so long to bring charges? Hello, I'm Colin Heaton, former history professor, Army and Marine Corps veteran, and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History. The beginning of the toughest 26 days in Marine Corps history. The 36th President of the United States died this afternoon. There are children and women in here, and to call it off... Under the Trump administration, emails, memos, and documents were recovered proving that former FBI director James Comey, and former assistant director Andrew McCabe, and counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, FBI attorney Lisa Page, and many others conspired and violated several federal laws. The evidence cited includes the July 2016 Clinton press conference, the October 26 letter to Congress, the Trump memo leak, and proof of the Russia collusion hoax and FISA court perjuries. That was part of the rationale for Trump firing Comey. Comey is accused of substituting his personal judgment and political ideology for DOJ rules. First by publicly clearing Clinton, then by reopening the case publicly, then by leaking Trump memos after his firing. Comey protected Clinton while aggressively pursuing Trump and his associates. Currently, the DOJ Inspector General findings regarding ethics and policy violations include unauthorized disclosure of sensitive FBI information, and Comey admitted that, after Trump fired him, he gave contents of one Trump meeting memo to a friend, Columbia law professor Daniel Richman, to pass on to the New York Times. The DOJ Inspector General investigated Comey's retention, handling, and disclosure of those memos. But why were these charges not brought years ago? The original IG finding was that Comey violated FBI-DOJ norms, document controls, and policies by retaining and disclosing official FBI records. DOJ, headed by Merrick Garland under then-President Joseph Biden, declined criminal prosecution. Reuters reported DOJ declined charges despite the IG finding that Comey improperly kept official FBI documents and caused one memo's content to be shared with a reporter. That is illegal. Comey treated official government records as personal property after being fired, and he is accused of mishandling official FBI memos after leaving office. The IG found the memos were official FBI records, not Comey's private documents. Under Biden and Garland, he was not prosecuted. Comey testified that he hoped disclosure of the Trump memos would lead to appointment of a special counsel connected to the now-proven false accusation of the Russia collusion hoax perpetrated by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and many others within the Democrat Party. Critics allege this was a manipulative back-channel leak to force the Russia investigation into special counsel status, both during and after the election of Trump in his first term. Again, Biden and Garland dismissed this politically powerful allegation and no charges were filed. Comey hit the national stage during the Hillary Clinton email and server investigation. The case was so high-profile and so much information had been leaked, Comey and the Obama holdovers in the DOJ could not dismiss the case, so they gave it a soft touch. In looking back at our investigations into the mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information or vast quantities of information exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct or indications of disloyalty to the United States or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here. Comey publicly announced in July 2016 that Hillary Clinton should not be charged even though charging decisions were normally the DOJ's job, ergo Attorney General Loretta Lynch, not the FBI Director. Comey did not have the legal authority to make that call, but Lynch and the Democrat DOJ let it slide because it served their purpose. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's 2017 memo criticized Comey, accusing him of mishandling the Clinton case and acting outside his role. The Vice President said the decision to fire the FBI Director was based on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a career prosecutor who has worked for Republican and Democratic administrations. What became evident during the process was Comey and Lynch giving Hillary Clinton favorable treatment and they applied a softer standard to Clinton than ordinary defendants would receive for mishandling classified material. Clinton had been ordered to preserve all communications devices and emails. She had all devices destroyed and her 30,000 emails, which she claimed were of a personal nature, transmitted on her illegal and unsecured server, were not preserved. They were deleted. This is obstruction of justice, and her actions violated the National Security Act. As I look back at it now, even though it was allowed, I should have used two accounts, one for personal, one for work-related emails. That was a mistake. I'm sorry about that. I take responsibility. As evidenced by critics, Hillary Clinton was not placed under oath in the FBI interview. No grand jury process was used in the same way critics expected under the law. Immunity agreements were given to some aides, and Comey announced no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges. But there were serious problems. Comey and Lynch did not just prejudge the Clinton case before the investigation was complete, Comey himself drafted and circulated an exoneration statement before key interviews were even conducted, including Clinton's. The fix was in. And Comey made the stunning admission his lack of confidence in Justice Department leadership after Attorney General Loretta Lynch met with Bill Clinton on a tarmac paved the way for his unprecedented press conference last July, announcing he didn't recommend charges. When Republicans learned of the Clinton crimes, Comey had no choice but to reopen the Clinton email investigation 11 days before the 2016 election. Secretary Clinton said I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material. Was that true? There was classified material emailed. Secretary Clinton said all work-related emails were returned to the State Department. Was that true? No, we found work-related emails, thousands that were not returned. Comey could not deny what was discovered, so he eased up on the criminal activity and sent an October 28, 2016 letter to Congress saying the FBI had found more Clinton-related emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop. Democrats accused Comey of improperly influencing the election, when in reality he was doing everything possible to keep presidential candidate Hillary Clinton out of a federal indictment and decades in prison. Finding The Obama administration's Inspector General publicly criticized Comey's handling of the announcement and decision-making process, but this was window dressing, giving the appearance of a rebuke, and Comey then cleared Clinton again two days before the election. No charges, although any other ordinary American would be posting bail if they had the money. Comey announced on November 6, 2016 that the new emails that were discovered had not changed the FBI's conclusion. Republicans accused him of rushing the review and again protecting Clinton. This was an astonishing development, as several were labeled Top Secret and Special Access Program, the highest classification, and dealt with major national security concerns. What Comey did not disclose was that most of those destroyed 30,000 emails were found on Anthony Weiner's laptop, dealing with everything from the Benghazi disaster to Clinton's financial dealings, including the sale of uranium to Russia and thousands of sensitive communications with foreign leaders involved with the Clinton Foundation. Clinton used a private server to bypass congressional oversight, which is a major crime. See our videos on the Clinton Foundation and Benghazi. Both sides accused Comey of politicizing the Clinton case. Democrats say his October letter hurt Clinton. Republicans say his July exoneration protected Clinton. Again, the Obama and Lynch IG found serious breaches of legal protocol but did not determine that Comey's decisions were driven by political bias. The investigation also proved that Comey withheld team notes on Lieutenant General Michael Flynn Trump's former National Security Advisor, proving no crime was committed by Flynn and that they planned entrapment, which is a separate felony, although they prosecuted him, threatened his son with being charged, and forced Flynn into bankruptcy. Flynn later filed a $50 million lawsuit against the DOJ, which was recently settled for $1.2 million and a complete exoneration following the pardon he received. What has not been disclosed yet is that Comey is also finally being held accountable for four counts of fraud perpetrated upon the FISA Court, where he signed off on the Steele dossier created by Democrats as being verified. This was when he applied for Operation Crossfire Hurricane to be launched, where he had allegedly already been illegally spying on then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and his key advisors. Comey needed the court to approve his surveillance operation to cover what he and the Democrats had already been doing, because, if caught, they were looking at serious federal prison time. So, Comey signed these false applications, even confirmed the evidence under oath, when in fact nothing he presented was truthful or verified and he knew it at the time. In fact, over the years, the entire charade has been exposed as the worst political and criminal scandal since Watergate. Comey's perjury was captured during one of these Senate hearings. Do you stand by your House testimony on March 20th that there was no surveillance of the Trump campaign that you're aware of? Correct. You would know about it if there were, is that correct? I think so, yes. Okay. The Democrat-riddled IG finding was that the 2019 DOJ IG report found the investigation had an authorized purpose and sufficient factual predication and did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias drove the opening. However, Attorney General Barr and John Durham disputed key aspects of that conclusion. Comey knew the entire case was a lie from the start during his misleading the FISA court in the Carter-Page surveillance applications and the FBI applications, contained major errors of fact and outright omissions, perpetuating the fraud upon the court. Comey failed to disclose to the FISA court about exculpatory Carter-Page information, such as the fact that Carter-Page previously had been an approved operational contact for the CIA and had provided information about Russian contacts. But there was much more. The recent finding is that the DOJ and IG found 17 significant inaccuracies and omissions in the Carter-Page FISA applications, reflecting serious failures in FBI procedures and supervision. Much of the information was fabricated. This included the IG proving the steel material played a leading role in the Carter-Page FISA process, which was touted by Comey and others, and that the FBI failed to fully inform the court of information undercutting steel's reliability. Comey, the FBI and DOJ publicly stated that the steel dossier was critical to the investigation, never believing that the lie would be exposed, and they knew they had lied to the court. They expected a Hillary Clinton election win, giving them total cover. Comey's FBI had relied on false statements which created the politically funded steel dossier claims to surveil a Trump campaign associate. Comey even had FBI informants planted within the Trump campaign, and after his election tried to embed them into his administration. Comey and elected members of Congress, such as Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, and see our videos on those two, pushed the lies through the liberal media to present a false Trump-Russia collusion narrative. The resulting congressional investigations into the fraud lasted for five years and cost taxpayers over $35 million. The final word came from independent counsel Durham's report, which sharply criticized the FBI's handling of Russia-related intelligence and investigative decisions. But Comey himself was still not charged, due to Merrick Garland's protection, and later supported by the Biden presidency. Another issue facing Comey, and even former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, regards the internal FBI leak-related allegations. McCabe said Comey knew about or authorized a disclosure to the press concerning the separate Clinton Foundation investigation. Comey claims that is not true, and McCabe was fired. Under the Democrat DOJ, neither Comey nor McCabe were charged for breaking several federal laws. Most Americans have lost trust in the FBI as well as the federal government in total. Even the IG framed the problem as institutional. Public trust is damaged when law enforcement officials abandon norms or appear politically biased, let alone commit crimes on behalf of a political ally and target a political opponent. The greatest criticism was that a Democrat-Obama-FBI-NDOJ violated their oaths of office and covered up the greatest political crimes in U.S. history and tried to overthrow a president. Treason is not too harsh a word for working with foreign governments such as North Korea, China, Iran, and Russia to interfere with a presidential election, let alone continue that process with a compliant and abetting Congress to try and remove a duly elected president through fraud. Comey is represented by former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. We will post a follow-up video later when and if required. Thank you for watching this episode of Forgotten History. If you liked what you saw, please click like, share, and subscribe. And if you would like to assist with the ever-increasing costs of production, please consider becoming a channel member and joining our Patreon page. And thanks for watching.