The U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia is preparing to issue a formal indictment against James Comey, the former FBI director who ran the agency when it investigated both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, a report Wednesday revealed.
The formal charges were not known, MSNBC reported, but were likely to include a charge of lying under oath to Congress when he testified to the House Oversight Committee and denied authorizing leaks to the media in September of 2020.
If the indictment goes forward, it would make Comey the first on a list of Donald Trump’s enemies targeted by his administration to be formally charged, though the president has urged Attorney General Pam Bondi and his various other deputies to pursue prosecutions against other Democrats and political foes, including Sen. Adam Schiff and Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook.
Lindsey Halligan, a former White House aide with little federal court or prosecutorial experience, just took over the Eastern District office this week as acting U.S. attorney. A fervent Trump loyalist and yet another member of his legal defense team tapped for a key role at DOJ, she’s taking over an operation which MSNBC reported had been in the works for several weeks.
Halligan’s predecessor in the role, Erik Siebert, the U.S. Attorney confirmed by Congress for the Virginia district, submitted his resignation on Friday. Shortly beforehand, Trump told reporters he wanted Siebert “out” because he learned that Virginia’s Democratic senators had supported his nomination earlier this year.
Former FBI director James Comey is seen on Capitol Hill (Getty Images)
But Siebert’s resignation reportedly came after he failed to make a case on mortgage fraud charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James. The Trump administration had pressured Siebert to bring charges against James, despite the fact that investigators failed to find evidence of wrongdoing, ABC News reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Halligan, meanwhile, has no prosecutorial experience or background in national security, two factors which put her at a disadvantage as she steps into the role of acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which given its proximity to the Capital, often tries such cases. She previously served as a White House aide, and helped lead the effort to Trumpify the Smithsonian Institution.
Trump infamously fired Comey during his first term when he grew impatient with the months-long investigation taken over by the Justice Department’s special counsel, Robert Mueller, in 2017. The investigation was originally launched by Comey into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Comey clashed with Trump repeatedly before his firing over his refusal to confirm that Trump personally was not under investigation for criminal activity.
CNN reported separately on Wednesday that the DOJ was nearing a decision on that case; the statute of limitations surrounding perjury expire next week as it relates to Comey’s 2020 testimony.
Lindsey Halligan, part of former US President Donald Trump’s legal team, leaves the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building & Courthouse after a court hearing in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 1, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)
The Independent reported previously that the president was receiving frequent reports from two of his MAGA operatives stationed at the Justice Department and Federal Housing Finance Agency as he sought to engineer criminal prosecutions of his enemies.
An emailed request for comment to the former FBI director did not receive an immediate response Wednesday afternoon. The Independent also reached out to the Justice Department.
At the Justice Department, special prosecutor Ed Martin is reporting directly to the president outside of the typical DOJ chain of command as he participates in the scheme, which has frustrated some senior Justice leadership.
Halligan is another one of those loyalists, and was just installed as acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia where she represents one of the final missing links in the chain connecting Trump’s ambitions of targeting his political enemies and reality.
This latest development comes less than a week after the president demanded in a Truth Social posting addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi that the Justice Department take further strides to launch politically-driven prosecutions of his enemies, with little pretext other than revenge.
“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done,’” Trump wrote Saturday evening.
The post finished with Trump declaring, “[w]e can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
The president also expressed confidence in Halligan in a separate post suggesting she’d be working closely with Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in the role.
“She is extremely intelligent, fearless and, working with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, has the strength and determination to be absolutely OUTSTANDING in this new and very important role,” Trump wrote of Halligan.
The appointment of Halligan is another gambit for Trump, whose own confidence in the malleability of the judicial system may clash with reality if Comey’s case goes to trial.
The president installed another novice litigator, Fox News star Jeanine Pirro, in as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia only for Pirro to struggle to bring successful cases against protesters and some residents swept up in Trump’s crackdown on Washington D.C.
