09 26 25 ABC's Steven Portnoy on charges filed against former FBI director Comey

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now on Colorado's Morning News. Former FBI Director James Comy
has been indicted on two of the three counts sought
by prosecutors, just days after President Trump issued a public
demand for his Justice Department to act now to bring
prosecutions against Comey and other political foes joining us.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Now in the koa Comma Spirit of Health Hotline. ABC
News National correspondent Steven sport Well, I, Steven, what are
the two counts that he's been indicted on, James Comy?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
The two counts are making false statements and obstructing a
congressional proceeding. This relates to his testimony before the Senate
Judiciary Committee on September thirtieth, twenty twenty, almost exactly five
years ago. And that's important because the five year statute
of limitations will run out next Tuesday. And ahead of that,

(00:43):
the federal prosecutors in Eastern Virginia yesterday secured and indictment
looking back five years on something that apparently goes back
nine years ago. And it has to do, as far
as I can deduce, because the indictment doesn't very clearly
spell it out. It has to do with a disclosure
that then Deputy director Andrew McCabe made to The Wall

(01:06):
Street Journal about Hillary Clinton's emails found on Huma Aberdeen's
laptop and the fact that the FBI had reopened the
Hillary Clinton email investigation. In the final days before the
twenty sixteen election. Andrew McCabe shared that information with The
Wall Street Journal. He was later fired. He claimed that

(01:31):
Comy was aware of his disclosure, but the evidence also
indicates that he may have told Comy after the fact.
Comy testified in twenty seventeen and in twenty twenty that
he never authorized anyone in the FBI to leak he's
now accused of lying about that, And it'll be very interesting,

(01:53):
very interesting to see how federal prosecutors who brought these
charges are going to be able to prove it in court.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Stephen, that's count. Is there any significance of that not
being approved by the grand jury?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
You know, we don't often hear about grand jury's declining charges.
Number one, we don't hear about it because it doesn't
often happen. Number two, we don't hear about it because
it's almost never publicly released. I think it was a
bit of a mistake on the part of Lindsay Halligan,
the US attorney to put forward two separate documents yesterday.
She's never been a prosecutor before, and she entered two

(02:25):
documents with her signature in federal court. Even the magistrate
judge said that she'd never seen that before. But nevertheless,
they're both now on the public docket. So we can
all see what that third charge declined by the grand
jury was. It was another charge of making false statements.
I think again, the information isn't clear, so I have
to read between the lines here. I think it had

(02:46):
to do with a statement involving something having to do
tangentially with the Steele dossier, but the grand jury declined
to indict on that charge. I don't have any more
information on it.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
This is interesting, and you know this full well, Steven.
This isn't a light to the fact that Eric Sebert,
who was the attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia
where this is coming out of, he stepped down because
he's getting pressure, it sounds like from the administration for
not prosecuting some of these people because the word was
his people said there really wasn't enough there. He was
skeptical about it. Halligan put in, I guess her background
is insurance law. Don't know how that translates, but I

(03:20):
don't know how else can we look at this? Do
we look at this as getting something from the prison?
He's trying to exact retribution against people he thinks are
his political enemies.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
The bigger picture has to involve the fact that four years,
for the better part of a decade, the President of
the United States has been saying that James Comy should
be prosecuted. This week, Lindsay Halligan, who formerly served as
a White House aide, who was charged with rooting out
what is deemed inappropriate content at the Smithsonian. She was

(03:49):
advised by her staff in the Eastern District of Virginia
that there ought not to be charges brought here, that
there's not the ability to prove the case. Nevertheless, she
took it before the grand jury, she secured the indictment.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Comy's response to all of this and when do we
expect an arrayment?

Speaker 3 (04:06):
The arrayment's been scheduled for October ninth. There was some
reporting last night, apparently erroneous, that he was going to
turn himself in. Today he's been given a summons to appear.
We expect that will happen in a couple of weeks.
As for his response, well, he posted on Instagram last
night that he's innocent and he's looking forward to proving
that in court.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
ABC News National correspondent Stephen Portnoy, thank you, you bet.