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DEVELOPING STORY,
Former FBI Director James Comey is a longtime critic of US President Donald Trump, and testified against him in 2020.
Former FBI Director James Comey says he is innocent of criminal charges following his indictment by a United States court for allegedly making false statements and obstruction of justice.
“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,” Comey said in a video posted on Instagram on Thursday evening in the US.
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The charges against Comey stem from his 2020 statement to the US Senate Judiciary Committee that he did not authorise the FBI to leak information about investigations into Trump or Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.
Comey headed the FBI from 2013 until 2017 until he was fired by Trump shortly into his first term in office.
Following Comey’s indictment on Thursday, Trump wrote a celebratory post on Truth Social. “JUSTICE FOR AMERICA!” Trump wrote on Thursday evening in the US.
“One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI,” the US President wrote.
The charges against Comey mark the first time that Trump has secured an indictment against one of his many high-profile critics.
On Saturday, Trump urged US Attorney General Pam Bondi to level charges against Comey as well as California Senator Adam B Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James in a post on Truth Social.
Under Comey, the FBI investigated the 2016 Trump presidential campaign’s ties to Russia, while a probe of Clinton investigated her use of private email accounts while serving as Secretary of State under US President Barack Obama.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller later took over the investigation into the Trump campaign, including meetings between Russian and Trump campaign officials and Russian hacking of Clinton’s campaign emails.
The Mueller investigation concluded that “although the [Trump] Campaign expected it would benefit electorally” from the leaked emails, his probe could not “establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” according to a 2019 report to the Department of Justice.
The findings have long been considered a thorn in Trump’s side.
