'My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Trump'

As the former FBI director James Comey is indicted by a vengeful president, Democrats fear for the future of the entire justice system

- Hugh Tomlinson

James Comey testifying on 'Russiaqate' at a Senate committee hearing in 2017.

(Carolyn Kaster/ AP)

In the video statement issued after his indictment on obstruction and perjury charges last week, James Comey alluded to the impact on his family of the US president's vendetta.

"My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn't either," the former FBI director said.

In his thirst for revenge, Trump has not constrained himself to pursuing the man he fired weeks into his first presidency. Comey's crime was his refusal to drop the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 race and ties to the Trump campaign. The "Russiagate" scandal would engulf Trump's first term in the White House.

"My motto is: Always get even," Trump wrote in his 2007 book, Think Big and Kick Ass: in Business and Life. "When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades."

In the president's eyes, Comey and his family are all legitimate targets. Months before last Thursday's bombshell indictment, Comey's daughter, Maurene, who was the federal prosecutor behind hundreds of cases including the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, was also fired.

Maurene sued the Trump administration to get her job back earlier this month, claiming her dismissal was politically motivated. The lawsuit revealed that after she was dismissed in July, Maurene entered the Public Corruption Unit offices in New York to find colleagues "visibly shocked and upset by the news".

When US attorney Jay Clayton arrived, Maurene asked why she had been fired. "All I can say is it came from Washington," Clayton replied, according to the lawsuit. "I can't tell you anything else."