Former FBI director Comey is indicted on two charges

The Department of Justice has indicted former FBI director James Comey, the first in a series of potential charges against critics of Donald Trump after the US president demanded that the attorney general launch swift prosecutions against his political enemies.

- JOSH MARCUS IN SAN FRANCISCO

“No one is above the law,” the attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X. “[It] 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.”

The indictment accuses Mr Comey, whom Mr Trump sacked in 2017, of making false statements and obstructing justice during congressional testimony in September 2020. The document notes that a grand jury didn’t concur on one of the charges prosecutors originally sought.

During questioning in the Senate at the time mentioned in the indictment, Mr Comey defended the truthfulness of prior testimony where he said he did not authorise FBI investigations into Mr Trump and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton to be leaked to the press. A former official who worked under Mr Comey, Andrew McCabe, has claimed the director did in fact authorise him to leak to the press, a 2018 inspector general report found. However, the report also found Mr McCabe had made false and misleading statements in the past.