Morning Report is The Hill's a.m. newsletter. Subscribe here.

In today's issue:

▪ Comey indicted

▪ Slow-walk to shutdown

▪ ICE shooting details

▪ Netanyahu at the UN

Thank you for signing up!

Subscribe to more newsletters here

Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted on the basis of allegations that he gave false testimony to Congress in 2020, despite some officials expressing concern over a lack of evidence for the case.

The indictment is the latest chapter in a long-running feud between Comey and President Trump, who memorably fired the then-FBI director during his first term.

Comey is facing charges of making a false statement to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison. He is set to be arraigned Oct. 9.

“No one is above the law. Today’s 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,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on the social platform X.

Trump celebrated the news, declaring “justice in America” in all caps in a Truth Social post and calling Comey "one of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to."

“He 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,” the president wrote.

Comey professed his innocence in a short video posted to Instagram, adding he's "not afraid" but that his heart was "broken" for the Justice Department.

“My family and I have known for years there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump. But we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way,” Comey said. "We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either."

Comey served as FBI director at the start of the first Trump administration, but Trump fired him in 2017 while the agency was still investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and alleged ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

The indictment comes days after Trump demanded Bondi pursue legal action against Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Trump said ahead of the indictment being delivered that he didn’t know if Comey was going to face charges.

“I’m not making that determination. I think I’d be allowed to get involved if I want, but I don’t really choose to do so,” Trump said at the White House.

“I can only say that Comey’s a bad person, he’s a sick person. I think he’s a sick guy actually, he did terrible things at the FBI,” he added. “But I don’t know, I have no idea what’s going to happen.”

The case against Comey centers on testimony he gave before Congress on Sept. 30, 2020, about the FBI’s original Trump-Russia probe, known as “Crossfire Hurricane,” The Washington Post reported. Alleged ties between Trump's campaign and Russia were ultimately unproven.

Despite Trump’s statement that he didn't know whether Comey would face charges, he has appeared to place a considerable amount of pressure on prosecutors to move forward with the case.

Erik Siebert, who served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, resigned last week under pressure from the Trump administration to advance cases against Comey and James. It came after Siebert reportedly indicated prosecutors had insufficient evidence to charge either of them.

Trump replaced Siebert with a hand-picked aide, Lindsey Halligan, one of the president's former defense lawyers who joined him in the White House. Halligan is serving as acting U.S. attorney and will continue the investigations. But others have also expressed doubt about the cases.

The Post reported that career prosecutors presented Halligan with a memo describing concerns about a lack of evidence. And CNN reported that Bondi has also expressed concerns about the case, though a person familiar with her thinking told the outlet she believed bringing an indictment would be possible.

Investigators analyzed at least two of Comey’s responses that he gave during his testimony, The Post reported.

One was in response to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in which he said he wasn’t aware of an investigative referral to the FBI regarding former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, while another was in response to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in which Comey denied authorizing leaks to the news media about the probes into Trump and Russia and into Clinton’s use of a private email server.

The charges against Comey concern his exchange with Cruz. Court documents show that prosecutors requested another count of making false statements against Comey from his exchange with Graham, but the grand jury declined to approve it.

▪ The Hill: 5 things to know about the Comey indictment

FBI Director Kash Patel in a post on X cast the case as the agency delivering on its "promise of full accountability."

"Nowhere was this politicization of law enforcement more blatant than during the Russiagate hoax, a disgraceful chapter in history we continue to investigate and expose," Patel wrote. "Everyone, especially those in positions of power, will be held to account - no matter their perch."

Following the indictment, Comey's son-in-law, Troy A. Edwards Jr., resigned his position as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, saying the move was necessary "to uphold my oath to the Constitution."

The indictment marks the most high-profile case brought against a longtime foe of the president, with Trump's critics accusing him of politically influencing the independence justice system.

“Donald Trump has made clear that he intends to turn our justice system into a weapon for punishing and silencing his critics,” Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said the indictment is "clear a case of vindictive and selective prosecution," leaving "very little chance" that Comey could be convicted.

“So I think either the judge will have to throw it out, or a jury hearing it will see it and simply…it cannot find that there is remotely enough evidence to convict,” he said during an interview on MSNBC.

Time was running out for officials to decide what to do about Comey. The five-year statute of limitations to bring charges was set to expire Tuesday.

Comey in his video invoked the words of his daughter, saying "fear is the tool of the tyrant." Maurene Comey made that statement in a fiery memo in July after she was pushed out from her job as a federal prosecutor.

She is suing the Justice Department on allegations that she was fired for politically motivated reasons.

▪ CNN: Comey indictment is stunning even by Trump's standards

▪

© The Hill