Federal prosecutors are trying to indict former FBI Director James Comey before the statute of limitations runs out next week for perjury charges.
A grand jury has not yet voted on the indictment, but time is running out. Lying to Congress has a five-year limit to bring charges, and authorities are reportedly looking at bringing a charge relating to Mr. Comey’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 30, 2020.
The investigation is being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The prosecutors are looking into whether Mr. Comey made false statements about the FBI probe of the Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The Washington Times reached out to Mr. Comey for comment.
An indictment of the former FBI director would be one of the highest-profile indictments of President Trump’s opponents.
The FBI in July launched a criminal investigation of Mr. Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan for possible wrongdoing in the Trump–Russia collusion investigation.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe sent alleged evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Brennan to FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate for potential prosecution.
The referral described Mr. Brennan’s and Mr. Comey’s interactions as a “conspiracy,” which could open up a wide range of potential prosecutorial options.
Last month, President Trump said declassified documents show “absolute proof of guilt” that former Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper and Mr. Comey conspired to sabotage his 2016 campaign.
The president called the newly revealed documents “incredible” evidence of wrongdoing.
“They’re sick people, and they’re criminals, and they should be taken care of,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’ll see what happens. But Clapper and Comey and that whole group of criminals. They’re criminals.”
He added, “They did the fake ’Russia, Russia, Russia’ witch hunt that lasted for two years, and I got totally exonerated. … It was a whole scheme to try and demean Trump so that I couldn’t win an election.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents showing a Dec. 22, 2016, email exchange between Mr. Clapper and then-National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers discussing the “joint product related to Russian attribution and intent for the DNC/DCCC hacks.”
Mr. Clapper was resolute about “stickin’ to” the narrative that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election to benefit Mr. Trump, despite a former top intelligence official saying otherwise in email exchanges.
In May, Mr. Ratcliffe ordered a “lessons-learned review” of the steps taken in the intelligence community assessment titled “Russia’s Influence Campaign Targeting the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.”
The review focused on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin “aspired” to help Mr. Trump win his first election.
The investigations dominated the president’s first term, even though he vehemently denied any connection to the Kremlin.
In social media posts after the release of the memo, Mr. Ratcliffe said the president “has trusted me with helping to end weaponization of US intelligence.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.