When Donald Trump was in the dock in February 2024, assailed by criminal charges and a long way from resuming the presidency, James Comey, the tall, ramrod straight former head of the FBI, couldn’t resist a swipe at his expense.
Asked how the prison system could cope with an ex-president as a convict, Comey replied blithely: “Put him in a double wide [trailer home] somewhere out near the fences.”
Now the boot is on the other foot. Comey is the first US public servant to face the full force of Trump’s terrifying pre-election vow: “I am your retribution.” He won’t be the last.
The former FBI chief has been indicted on the flimsiest of charges – giving false statements and obstruction of Congress. Five years ago, Comey is alleged to have authorised a leak in one of the leakiest cities on earth, Washington DC, and lied about it at a congressional hearing.
“Justice in America!” Trump crowed, delighting in his revenge. Comey strongly denies the two charges and said in a video statement, “We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either.”
The “we” is telling. The Trump administration has also gone after his beloved daughter, Maurene, who successfully prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell for sex trafficking Jeffrey Epstein’s victims in 2021.
Maurene Comey was fired in July by the Department of Justice, with no reason given, and two weeks later Maxwell was moved to a cushier prison.
The Epstein affair continues to roil the Justice department. Its leader, Pam Bondi, is fighting to keep Trump’s favour in an unseemly battle with the Maga boys leading the FBI, Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino – megamouths far distant from the “G-men” (faceless agents) of yesteryear.
Making plain his intentions in a possible gift to the defence, Trump has publicly urged Bondi to “act” and “fast” against his chosen targets. Last week the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert resigned after Trump announced he wanted Siebert “out”, allegedly for slow-walking the prosecution of Comey and other political foes.
He was speedily replaced by Lindsey Halligan, a former Colorado beauty queen turned lawyer, who has almost no experience as a prosecutor but was willing to go after Comey before the five-year statute of limitations expires on Tuesday.
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I’ve interviewed Comey at his home in Virginia, in an area rammed with CIA and FBI officials. He warned me then that a second Trump presidency would be “really dangerous for our country”.
He compared him to a mob boss and said: “He’s even nastier and more unmoored than he was… The idea of him as president, just bent on retribution and destroying the system, is chilling.”
Comey is wealthy by most people’s standards but has worked in the public sector for much of his life. Even if the prosecution against him fails, the legal bills will rack up.
His livelihood and that of his daughter, who is suing the Department of Justice for wrongful dismissal, is at threat. Comey’s son-in-law has also lost his job. He just resigned as a senior prosecutor in Virginia, citing loyalty to the constitution.
The message is clear: anybody who crosses the President does so at their peril. It is the language of the mafia, just as Comey warned.
Looking back, it is hard to see what Trump’s beef is about. Hillary Clinton still blames Comey’s cack-handed decision to reopen an investigation into “her emails” on the eve of the 2016 election for her opponent’s shock victory.
But Comey was fired, reportedly after he declined Trump’s demand for a personal loyalty oath to him and refused to call off the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s links with Russia (which the President still refers to as the “Russia hoax”).
After the 6 January riots in 2021, Trump appeared finished. But the blizzard of lawsuits against him for allegedly obstructing the 2020 election, his business dealings in New York and the defamation of E Jean Carroll – to whom he still owes $83m – did wonders to restore his reputation as a fighter and champion of the underdog. He roared back.
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Not for the first time, Democrats are ruing the failed “lawfare” against Trump when he was down and out. This not only powered his comeback but led to a ruling on presidential immunity from the Supreme Court that has given him carte blanche to break constitutional norms.
The President is also coming after Letitia James, the New York attorney general who prosecuted him for business fraud in New York, and John Bolton, his former national security adviser and critic.
Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Trump announced at the White House on Thursday that wealthy donors to liberal causes should be investigated for allegedly funding “domestic terrorism”. He named the billionaire philanthropist George Soros and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman as possible targets.
Americans don’t care as much as they should about abstract notions of saving democracy. But the President should know that sympathy for him during his own legal battles cuts both ways. He has become the bully – and it’s an ugly look.
Sarah Baxter is director of the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting
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