Donald Trump may have doomed the federal case against former FBI Director James Comey because the president openly demanded his political enemies be prosecuted, judges have told CNN.
Comey, whom Trump fired in 2017, has been charged with making a false statement to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding over allegations that he lied to a 2020 Senate committee about whether he authorized leaks to the press about the Russiagate collusion investigation.
Thursday’s indictment against Comey arrived after Trump openly pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi to bring charges against his enemies, telling her that “we can’t delay any longer” in a Truth Social rant. Trump’s strong-arming of Bondi specifically mentioned a list of targets she needed to pursue, including Comey, California Sen. Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Legal experts have suggested that Comey could seek to have the case thrown out by arguing he is the victim of selective or vindictive prosecution overseen by Trump. While such arguments are rarely successful—even Trump himself tried to use the tactic to dismiss the numerous legal cases he has faced—retired federal Judge John Jones suggests the president’s blatant revenge tour will work in Comey’s favor.
“It’s a better case for Comey, because the president won’t shut up,” Jones told CNN. “And that’s admissible, so he’s got a fighting chance, I think, on vindictive prosecution.”
Shira Scheindlin, another former federal judge, said the prosecution of Comey is “clearly vindictive,” as the former FBI head is a key figure on Trump’s “enemies list.”
“He’s made it so obvious that he’s targeting them, regardless of the evidence, that I do think a judge would be far more receptive to probably both concepts, selective prosecution and vindictive,” Scheindlin told CNN.
Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., also suggested that the turmoil surrounding prosecutor Erik Siebert could also help Comey argue he is not being charged based on facts but rather on the president’s vendettas.
Siebert resigned as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after refusing to bow to pressure from Trump to charge James with mortgage fraud, and was quickly replaced by the inexperienced Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan.
“The whole flip-flop thing and picking a new U.S. attorney who will do what the former U.S. attorney won’t, I mean, that sets off all kinds of red flags,” Eliason told CNN.
Comey has denied the charges against him and said he looks forward to proving his innocence.
Trump, in another statement that could potentially derail an open criminal case, has suggested that Comey must pay a “very big price” for the allegations against him, while simultaneously appearing to accept that the charges may not stick.
“There is no way he can explain his way out of it. He is a Dirty Cop, and always has been, but he was just assigned a Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge, so he’s off to a very good start,” Trump wrote in a Friday morning Truth Social post.
Reacting to judges’ remarks, White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast: “The indictment against Comey speaks for itself, and the Trump Administration looks forward to fair proceedings in the courts.”
