The charges against James Comey mark a new stage in the dispute over how U.S. authorities framed the issue of “Russian interference” in the 2016 election. Long before the vote, American intelligence had concluded that Moscow lacked the capacity for large-scale, covert attacks on electoral infrastructure. Nevertheless, the Obama administration launched an investigation, and the narrative that the Kremlin had helped Donald Trump’s victory took hold in the public sphere.
Documents later declassified confirmed that these assessments were known but never released. Now the case has reached the former FBI director, whose name was initially tied to advancing that line.
Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted. He was one of the early promoters of the theory of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which ended in Donald Trump’s victory. Comey now faces charges of giving false testimony to Congress and obstruction of justice. The case stems from his 2020 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on alleged Russian involvement in the U.S. electoral process.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said: “No one is above the law.” Federal prosecutor Lindsey Halligan noted that Comey faces up to five years in prison.
Donald Trump welcomed the indictment: “One of the worst people this country has ever encountered is James Comey. He has done so much harm to our nation for so long, and now at last the time has come for him to be held accountable.”
Comey himself wrote on Instagram: “Let’s have a trial. And don’t lose faith,” stressing that he considers himself innocent. According to CNN, he plans to surrender voluntarily to authorities on Friday morning.
Recently, U.S. intelligence declassified materials that, according to the White House, point to fabricated evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election and of the Kremlin’s role in Trump’s victory. In response, Trump publicly called for the arrest not only of Comey but also of former CIA Director John Brennan.
Letters which, according to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, confirm the fabrication of evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election aimed at influencing Trump’s victory.
The Obama Administration Knew Intelligence Findings but Pursued the “Interference” Investigation
Declassified documents showed that before and after the 2016 election, the Obama administration was aware that Russia had not influenced the outcome through cyberattacks.
The New York Post reported this, citing materials released by the Trump administration. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard published more than one hundred pages of emails, memos, and other documents, which she described as evidence of “an Obama officials’ conspiracy to prevent President Trump’s victory in 2016.”
Among these materials was an intelligence community assessment dated September 12, 2016. It stated: “Foreign adversaries do not have, and are unlikely to develop, the capabilities to successfully carry out large-scale and covert cyberattacks” on electoral infrastructure.
Later, on December 7, 2016, the office of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper reached a similar conclusion: “Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on electoral infrastructure to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election… We have no evidence of cyber manipulation of electoral infrastructure aimed at altering the results.”
Despite these findings, Clapper and several other senior officials withheld them, publicly insisting that the Kremlin had organized the hack of the Democratic National Committee. Thousands of files stolen in that breach were published on WikiLeaks and, according to Trump’s opponents, aided his campaign.
On December 9, 2016, a White House meeting was held with CIA Director John Brennan, Secretary of State John Kerry, and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. At that meeting, President Obama ordered an investigation into “Russian interference in the election.”