Former FBI Director James Comey indicted by federal grand jury

A federal grand jury Thursday indicted former FBI Director James B. Comey on charges of lying to Congress and obstruction of justice in relation to the heavily criticized Russia collusion probe that was launched under his leadership at the bureau.

The indictment, handed up by a grand jury seated in Alexandria, makes Mr. Comey the highest-ranking official to be charged in connection with the probe.

Mr. Trump, whose first term was badly hobbled by the never-proved claims that he colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 election, celebrated the news.

“Justice in America!” he wrote in all capital letters on Truth Social. “One of the worst human beings this country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI.”

The president said Mr. Comey “has been so bad for our Country for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation.”

Court documents say Mr. Comey did “willfully and knowingly make a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement” in Congress “by falsely stating to a U.S. Senator during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that he had not ‘authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports’ regarding an FBI investigation concerning” Mr. Trump.

The second count accuses Mr. Comey of “corruptly endeavor[ing] to influence, obstruct and impede the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which an investigation was being had before the Senate Judiciary Committee by making false and misleading statements before that committee.”

Mr. Comey is expected to surrender himself to authorities on Friday.

The former FBI chief, whom Mr. Trump fired from the post less than four months into his first term, protested his innocence in a video statement posted on multiple social media accounts.

“My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I’m innocent, so let’s have a trial,” he said.

He also encouraged others to continue resisitng Mr. Trump.

“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump … [but] we will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either … I hope instead, you are engaged, you are paying attention, and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it which it does,” he said.

In a short statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the indictment “reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said the indictment fulfills “a promise of full accountability” for the weaponization and politicization of law enforcement, which he said was “nowhere more blatant than during the Russiagate hoax, a disgraceful chapter in history we continue to investigate and expose.”

The indictments sparked immediate criticism that Mr. Trump is engaging in retribution and meddling with the Justice Department.

The charges were filed after significant pressure from Mr. Trump, who last week publicly called on Ms. Bondi to prosecute Mr. Comey and two other political enemies who mired him in impeachments, investigations and court cases: Sen. Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Mr. Trump last week forced out Erik Siebert, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, after he failed to seek an indictment of Mr. Comey.

He replaced Mr. Siebert with White House aide Lindsey Halligan, and she moved quickly to present a case to the grand jury to beat a five-year deadline on pursuing a criminal indictment on the false statements charge.

“In my almost six years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, I never witnessed such a blatant abuse of the department,” Mr. Schiff posted on X after the indictment was announced. “The DOJ is now little more than an arm of the president’s retribution campaign.”

The fallout quickly hit the Eastern Virginia office on another front Thursday night, as Mr. Comey’s son-in-law resigned minutes after the indictment was released.

Troy Edwards, who worked at that office, quit his job “to uphold my oath to the Constitution and the country,” he wrote in a one-sentence resignation letter addressed to Ms. Halligan.

The charges stem from Mr. Comey’s Sept. 30, 2020, congressional testimony in which he told lawmakers under oath that he had not leaked information about the Russia collusion probe to members of the media and knew nothing about leaks.

His testimony contrasted that of his former deputy, Andrew McCabe, who told lawmakers that he informed Mr. Comey of a leak to reporters and that Mr. Comey approved, effectively authorizing it after the fact.

The grand jury that indicted Mr. Comey also heard testimony from one of his friends, Columbia University professor Daniel Richmond.

Mr. Comey gave Mr. Richmond classified information about the FBI’s Russia collusion probe to pass along to The New York Times, which published stories pushing the narrative that Mr. Trump and the Russians worked together to help him win the 2016 election.

Mr. Comey launched the FBI’s Russia collusion probe, known as Crossfire Hurricane, during Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Documents made public by the Trump administration show that top brass in the FBI and intelligence community were determined to stop Mr. Trump from winning the White House in 2016, and they talked about removing him from office months after his inauguration.

The probe was based in part on the phony Steele dossier, funded and created on behalf of rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign, that alleged Russia had damaging information about Mr. Trump, some of it extremely salacious.

Mr. Trump called the investigation into his campaign “total weaponization” and “a disgrace” without precedent.

“Frankly, the FBI should be ashamed of themselves, and so should the Department of Justice and so should Biden,” he said in March.