# AP: “Ex-FBI Director James Comey indicted on charges of lying to Congress and obstruction” **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 26, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402 "2025-09-26T00:34:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2025, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/81 "2025-09-28T17:28:44Z")
Also, he’s not being tried for “incidentally helping Trump win”. That should not come into deciding if _this_ charge is or is not proven. ---
**Author:** ![hellasketchy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@hellasketchy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellasketchy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2025, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/82 "2025-09-28T21:09:00Z")
“what he did to Hillary” might be old news, but how about “what he did to Martha”? Scrapbookers never forget. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/83 "2025-09-28T21:12:57Z")
> [@hellasketchy](#): > > “what he did to Hillary” might be old news, but how about “what he did to Martha”? Indeed: > _“Those prosecutors should have been put in a Cuisinart and turned on high.” — Martha Stewart_ Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/84 "2025-09-29T14:37:06Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > So crazy, as many of us feel Comey may have been more responsible for rump’s 1st term victory than any other single individual. I’ve occasionally opined that the worst part of this Trump term is that he’s actually making me feel sorry for the people who used to support him, but are now facing his wrath, Comey and Bolton being the two biggest examples. I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire, but at the same time, neither of them deserve to be hauled through the mud over this stupid shit. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/85 "2025-09-29T15:52:00Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > I’ve occasionally opined that the worst part of this Trump term is that he’s actually making me feel sorry for the people who used to support him, but are now facing his wrath My wife and I feel the same. But about her side of the family. I don’t know if I can ask them if them still support him. I would have to completely walk away. My Wife is feeling the same way. But it’s tougher, because it’s blood. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/86 "2025-09-29T16:07:56Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire, but at the same time, neither of them deserve to be hauled through the mud over this stupid shit. So help me, I actually felt bad for Ted “Human Shaped Sack of Larvae” Cruz when Trump was insulting his wife. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/87 "2025-09-29T16:12:12Z")
Sometimes I just feel bad for Cruz’s wife, because she’s married to Ted Cruz, but then I remember - _she married Ted Cruz_. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/88 "2025-09-29T17:26:57Z")
I feel sorry for Ted Cruz’s dog. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/89 "2025-09-29T17:38:41Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > I’ve occasionally opined that the worst part of this Trump term is that he’s actually making me feel sorry for the people who used to support him, but are now facing his wrath, Comey and Bolton being the two biggest examples. I don’t think Jim Comey intentionally supported Trump in any material way; his late-breaking announcement of investigating Clinton’s illegal email server was really just trying to cover the FBI against accusations of bias and political favoritism. He was not a particularly good FBI director but he doesn’t deserve this persecution. Bolton definitely supported Trump insofar as he thought doing so would give him sufficient influence to extend his neocon agenda to go after Iran, but like a lot of people he thought he could manipulate and bend Trump to his will. Bolton was previously involved (albeit peripherally) in the Iran-Contra Affair and was one of the provocateurs of the 2003 US Invasion of Iraq. Fuck that guy. > [@Cervaise](#): > > So help me, I actually felt bad for Ted “Human Shaped Sack of Larvae” Cruz when Trump was insulting his wife. I feel bad for Ted Cruz’s wife for the failure of her husband to stand up for her. But then, Cruz is a monumentally unlikeable guy and all around asshole to democracy: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Uuu9iHCRzj0/maxresdefault.jpg "Ted Cruz: The Booger on the Lip of Democracy | The Daily Show") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuu9iHCRzj0) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/90 "2025-09-29T17:41:55Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I don’t think Jim Comey intentionally supported Trump in any material way; his late-breaking announcement of investigating Clinton’s illegal email server was really just trying to cover the FBI against accusations of bias and political favoritism. I disagree. It’s highly unusual for the FBI to publicly announce its progress and new findings, especially before he knew if he even had any findings. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/91 "2025-09-29T17:53:37Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I don’t think Jim Comey intentionally supported Trump in any material way; his late-breaking announcement of investigating Clinton’s illegal email server was really just trying to cover the FBI against accusations of bias and political favoritism. I agree in that I don’t think he deliberately supported Trump, but I disagree about his actual motivation. I believe he had a hate-boner for the Clintons ever since Whitewater and rushed for any chance to take down people he saw as corrupt. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/92 "2025-09-29T18:05:10Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I disagree. It’s highly unusual for the FBI to publicly announce its progress and new findings, especially before he knew if he even had any findings. It depends on if you are talking about July 2016 or November 2016. Comey’s mistake was to not resist the urge to make his 15-minute press conference in July, where he publicly chastised Clinton for being “careless” with her emails but announced that the DOJ declined to prosecute her. He also made a promise at that press conference that if further information warranted reopening the investigation, he would so advise Congress. At the time, it seemed an innocent enough promise to make. Who could foresee Anthony Weiner’s laptop and that emails from Clinton to Weiner’s wife and close Clinton aide, Huma Abedin, would be found just weeks before the election? Remember too that Obama’s AG, Loretta Lynch, had deferred all decisions to Comey because of an ill-advised, impromptu meeting on the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport between herself and Bill Clinton. At the time that the Weiner emails were discovered, FBI loyalists to Rudy Giuliani and by extension, Trump, planned to reveal the fact of these to both Congress and the public if Comey did not. Comey decided that if the information was going to be revealed anyway, then he should at least try to control the message. He clearly understood the difficult situation he was in. Your assertion that Comey didn’t announce there was nothing new to see in the Weiner emails came after the election is incorrect. In fact, it was announced on November 6, two days before the election. But the damage was done. Comey is in no way a Trump supporter and never wished to contribute to his election. He received an extremely painful lesson on why DOJ/FBI custom and practice is to not showboat and make press conferences announcing their intentions. But that’s all. Remember his quote, that it “makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election”, but that “honestly, it wouldn’t change the decision” to release the information. He doesn’t deserve this bullshit prosecution. And honestly, one person whom I believed fucked Clinton the hardest in 2016 was her husband, who should never have approached Loretta Lynch in Phoenix. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/93 "2025-09-29T18:07:48Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > I believe he had a hate-boner for the Clintons ever since Whitewater and rushed for any chance to take down people he saw as corrupt. I think that is probably likely, and it should be pointed out that using a private email server for government business is, in fact, illegal. Of course, the entire G.W. Bush White House used the RNC server _specifically_ to avoid government records of their plans to engineer the invasion of Iraq and even today nobody seems to give a shit so I going after Hillary was definitely a pretty selective action that would meet the then-hypothetical approval of Trump. But nothing James Comey could do would have made the FBI a ‘good’ agency in Trump’s view even in 2017. > [@Aspenglow](#): > > And honestly, one person whom I believed fucked Clinton the hardest in 2016 was her husband, who should never have approached Loretta Lynch in Phoenix. Bill Clinton is just so fucking inept and utterly insensitive to the appearance of corruption even if he doesn’t actually mean to be corrupt. Every time I hear Democrats fawning over the ‘Clinton era’ as some epoch of integrity and near perfection in governance I have to wonder what fantasy land they are living in. If Clinton had not been succeeded by such an openly venal and warmongering administration of George W. Bush his legacy would not have nearly the same shine that it does now. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/94 "2025-09-29T18:10:38Z")
Really, the issue in this thread is the abuse of power by the Trump cabal to selectively prosecute people for doing their jobs. And our discussion should remain on that point, not whether Comey “deserves” prosecution for past mistakes or misdeeds. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/95 "2025-09-29T18:13:07Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Every time I hear Democrats fawning over the ‘Clinton era’ as some epoch of integrity and near perfection in governance I have to wonder what fantasy land they are living in. You and me both. As if getting rid of Glass-Steagall wasn’t enough. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/96 "2025-09-29T18:25:51Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I think that is probably likely, and it should be pointed out that using a private email server for government business is, in fact, illegal. At the time, it was legal, not against policy, and a previous Sec of State, Colin Powell, advised Hillary how to set it up. As to the Weiner laptop, one of our posters here said he could have writter a program in 20 minutes to compare Clinton files to ones on the laptop AND run it to determine they were duplicates, not new or a revelation. The FBI dragged it out, either from procedural delays, lack of skill, or malice. The ‘story’ should have been a nothing burger in two days. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/97 "2025-09-29T18:28:49Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > And honestly, one person whom I believed fucked Clinton the hardest in 2016 was her husband, who should never have approached Loretta Lynch in Phoenix. Gosh, those were innocent times. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/98 "2025-09-29T18:29:27Z")
Weren’t they? It makes me weep. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/99 "2025-09-29T18:36:41Z")
Comey has one of the best lawyers around. With Rump bloviating about guilt and mountains of evidence; I expect subpoenas of him and his staff who fed Rump’s vindictive delusions. I’m 100 % in the “never gets to trial” camp. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2025, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402/100 "2025-09-29T18:37:39Z")
Thanks for the timing update – I thought he said “whoopsie” right after the election, but I guess it was a couple of days before. I remember the feeling of people just thinking “ugh, her emails again!”, with some people just giving up. Thank God we got someone who is so much better about operational security and so much less corrupt! Can you imagine a president trying to influence the AG and telling her who to go after? Why, the very idea! Anyway, Comey’s oopsie very likely swung the election (in my opinion, I guess) – he never should have promised to reveal anything about his investigation, but having done so, should have made sure there was something to reveal. Gross incompetence at the very least. No one deserves the selective prosecution that the current administration is doing, but Comey has a ton of responsibility for the mess we’re in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ap-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-to-congress-and-obstruction/1023402.md?page=6)