OAN Staff Blake Wolf
9:22 AM – Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty to allegedly making false statements to Congress in 2020 in regards to the bureau’s 2016 investigation into President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
Comey is facing charges of false statements within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch, as well as obstruction of a congressional proceeding, which were brought in September by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice.
The indictment alleges that Comey obstructed a congressional proceeding and made false statements during his 2020 Congressional testimony.
The Congressional testimony surrounded Comey’s probe of the alleged Russian collusion in then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, known as “Crossfire Hurricane.”
The FBI initially opened the investigation under Comey’s leadership in July 2016, prior to Trump winning the election and firing Comey in May 2017.
Following Comey’s departure from the bureau, Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel to pick up the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation, which concluded in March 2019, ultimately finding no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian officials.
After Mueller’s investigation concluded, John Durham was appointed as special counsel in 2020, tasked with investigating the original “Crossfire Hurricane” probe.
Throughout Durham’s investigation, he found that the FBI was a “target” of a Hillary Clinton-led campaign to “manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes” before the 2016 election.
Durham also found that the FBI “failed to act” — despite receiving a “clear warning sign” of political influence on the original investigation.
“The aforementioned facts reflect a rather startling and inexplicable failure to adequately consider and incorporate the Clinton Plan intelligence into the FBI’s investigative decision-making in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation,” Durham’s report states.
“Indeed, had the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation as an assessment and, in turn, gathered and analyzed data in concert with the information from the Clinton Plan intelligence, it is likely that the information received would have been examined, at a minimum, with a more critical eye,” the report went on.
Durham noted that the FBI “failed to act on what should have been – when combined with other incontrovertible facts – a clear warning sign that the FBI might then be the target of an effort to manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes during the 2016 presidential election.”
Comey appeared before U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted, Comey faces up to five years in prison.
After being indicted, Comey released a video, denying the allegations outright.
“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way,” he stated in an Instagram video. “We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either. Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant, and she’s right.”
“But I’m not afraid,” he added. “My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I am innocent, so let’s have a trial and keep the faith.”
Additionally, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement after the indictment was announced, proclaiming that “No one is above the law.”
Bondi emphasized that the 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.”
The judge set the trial date for January 5th.
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