What to know about charges against former FBI Director James Comey: Live updates
- - What to know about charges against former FBI Director James Comey: Live updates
Bart Jansen, USA TODAY September 26, 2025 at 11:36 PM
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WASHINGTON – James Comey will be arraigned Oct. 9 in a criminal case that President Donald Trump encouraged, but the former FBI director has proclaimed his innocence and invited a trial.
Comey's indictment Sept. 25 came after Trump publicly urged the Justice Department to pursue the charges against his longtime adversary. Trump fired Comey early during his first term and complained that his FBI investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election was a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”
Trump's DOJ persuaded a federal grand jury to advance three federal criminal counts against Comey, 64, Comey on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.
1 / 20Former FBI director James Comey indicted on two countsInvestigative Journalist Richard Esposito and Author James Comey, former FBI Director, speak at the Barnes & Noble Upper West Side on May 19, 2025 in New York City. Comey sat with Esposito to discuss his career and new book "FDR DRIVE," the third of a series of fictional crime novels featuring attorney Nora Carleton.
More: Former FBI Director James Comey: 'We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn't either'
Here’s what to know about the case:
Could Comey go to prison?
Nicolle Wallace (L) interviews James Comey onstage during Former FBI Director James Comey In Conversation With MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace at 92NY on May 30, 2023 in New York City.
Each of the two counts against Comey carries a maximum five-year sentence if he is convicted of making a false statement to Congress and obstructing Congress.
But as a first-time offender, Comey would likely get a shorter sentence than that.
Comey was charged basically with lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020 about whether he authorized a leak to the Wall Street Journal.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he and colleagues were conducting several investigations. Grassley said if Comey is convicted of lying and obstructing them, “he should be be held accountable.”
Comey has proclaimed his innocence and invited a trial.
Trump expects more prosecutions of Democrats, rivals
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as his granddaughter Kai Madison Trump looks on before departing for travel to New York to attend the Ryder Cup golf tournament, from the White House in Washington, D.C.
President Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Sept. 26 to attend the Ryder Cup golf match in New York that he expected more prosecutions of Democrats and political rivals because “they’re corrupt.”
“It's not a list, but I think there'll be others,” Trump said.
The president also argued that the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden was “weaponized” against him. “What they’ve done is terrible,” he said. "I hope there are others, because you can't let this happen to a country.”
Biden has said he was not involved in the prosecution of two federal cases against Trump, which were dropped when he won the White House again. Former Attorney General Merrick Garland has said prosecutors followed the facts and the law. Trump had been charged with attempting to steal the 2020 presidential election and retaining national defense documents at his Florida resort after his first term.
Trump said Democrats hounded him during his first term and then spent four years between his terms as president investigating him.
“It's about justice,” Trump said of the Comey said. “Really, it's not revenge. It's also about the fact that you can't let this go on. They are sick, radical left people, and they can't get away with it.”
Top Democrat calls DOJ ‘political tool of a vengeful president’
Sep 16, 2025; Washington, DC, USA; Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-IL) holds up a copy of Kash Patel’s book “Government Gangsters” as FBI Director Kash Patel testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Commitee in Washington, D.C., on Sept.16, 2025.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said the Justice Department has become “a political tool of a vengeful president.”
“President Trump wears his corruption like a badge of honor and defies anyone daring to challenge him,” Durbin said. “The Attorney General willingly complies with every order from the White House.”
Trump calls Comey charges 'justice,' not 'revenge'
A photograph of U.S President Donald Trump is lit up at the entranceway of Justin W. Williams United States Attorney's building, adjacent to U.S. District Court, on the day U.S. attorney are expected to ask jury to indict former FBI Director James Comey, in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S., September 25, 2025.
Trump told reporters as he was leaving the White House on Sept. 26 that the charges against Comey were justified rather than for retribution.
"This is about justice, not about revenge,” Trump said.
More: 'I hate my opponent': Trump's efforts to punish opponents intensify
The president, who has urged charges against others, such as Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California, said he anticipates more prosecutions.
"I hope there will be others” charged, Trump said.
When is Comey's arraignment?
James Comey, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is seen in a frame grab from a video feed as he is sworn in remotely from his home during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing exploring the FBI's investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian election interference in Washington, U.S., September 30, 2020.
U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff in Eastern Virginia set Comey’s arraignment for Oct. 9 at 10 a.m.But Comey already posted on social media that he is innocent and he invited a trial.
"I'm innocent, so let's have a trial and keep the faith my family and I have known for years,” Comey said in a Sept. 25 post.
What are the charges?
U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asks questions to James Comey, Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as he testifies remotely before the Senate Judiciary Committee during an oversight hearing to examine the Crossfire Hurricane Investigation in Washington DC., U.S., September 30, 2020.
The indictment relates to Comey’s testimony Sept. 30, 2020, to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Prosecutors allege that Comey falsely said that day that he hadn't “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports" in the Wall Street Journal about an investigation of Hillary Clinton.
The Justice Department’s inspector general previously reviewed the allegations and in 2018 found Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director, “lacked candor” in his statements about the leak.
When is the trial?
Members of the press work outside the Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse, following the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S., September 26, 2025.
The case is still in its earliest stages and Nachmanoff, a 2021 appointee of President Joe Biden, hasn’t set a trial date yet.
Before summoning a jury, prosecutors will have to share evidence they gathered with Comey’s defense lawyers. Comey could argue that the charges should be dismissed without a trial.
What has Trump said about Comey's indictment?
In this Jan. 22, 2017, file photo, President Trump shakes hands with James Comey during an Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception in the Blue Room of the White House.
Trump responded to the indictment with a pair of social media posts that said Comey lied and that he is “a Dirty Cop.”
“JAMES COMEY IS A DIRTY COP," Trump said in one post Sept. 25.
"There is no way he can explain his way out of it," Trump said in another post. "He is a Dirty Cop, and always has been... He just got unexpectedly caught."
Did Trump's Justice Department probe the Russia investigation already?
John Durham testifies in front of the House Judiciary Committee about the origins and justifications of the FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump on June 21, 2023. In a report released in May, Durham has sharply criticized the Department of Justice and FBI for the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election in his final report but said no policy changes were needed after the agencies overhauled their counterintelligence surveillance programs.
The FBI investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election has already been the subject of a scathing inspector general’s review and of a special counsel’s investigation.
But the FBI leadership turned over and adopted policy changes before special counsel John Durham’s investigation was completed in 2022. Durham charged three people in his investigation.
Kevin Clinesmith, a former FBI lawyer, pleaded guilty to falsifying an email used to justify the surveillance of Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser. Clinesmith was given probation.
Michael Sussmann was acquitted in May 2022 of lying to the FBI.
Igor Danchenko was acquitted in October 2022 of five counts of lying to investigators.
Durham sharply criticized the Justice Department and the FBI but said no further policy changes were needed at that point. That left Republicans to hammer away at flaws in FBI conduct and Democrats to argue that the agency was obligated to investigate.
Former national security advisor John Bolton speaks during his lecture at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, on Feb. 17, 2020.Who else is Trump targeting for criminal prosecution?
Trump had urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to charge Comey "NOW!!!” and voiced disappointment with a previous prosecutor who failed to secure an indictment.
More: Revenge tour? Trump campaign threats raise questions of retribution-focused presidency
The Comey prosecution raised concerns among Democrats and civil libertarians that Trump would wield the Justice Department against other political targets. John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser, has been charged with unlawfully retaining classified documents after leaving office.
The potential targets include Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James, who secured a $454 million judgment against Trump before it was overturned on appeal.
Trump has his sites set on Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California, who led the first House impeachment against Trump over his dealings with Ukraine.
More: 'Gloves are off': Trump attacks Biden, sweeping criminal charges at raucous New Jersey rally
Another potential target is former President Barack Obama, whom Trump accused of treason for the Russia investigation. Obama called it a “weak attempt at distraction.”
Billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros speaks during a discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York, Sept. 27, 2015.
Prosecutors are looking into Democratic donor George Soros, whose Open Societies Foundation for alleged terrorism and racketeering. The organization denied any criminal activity.
Others under investigation include former CIA Director John Brennan over the Russia inquiry and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook for alleged mortgage fraud. Both have denied wrongdoing.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What to know about charges against ex-FBI Director James Comey: Live
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