The Case Against Comey And The "Weaponization" Of The DOJ

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Thursday, October 9th, 2025. I'm Dave Anthony. Former FBI director James Comey pleads not guilty to lying to Congress. In a case, James Comey, and Democrats call Trump political revenge. He doesn't come into this with the clean hands that he thinks he has. I think there's a lot of room for both sides to kind of publicly trash each other. I'm Mike Emanuel. Much of the political world has been focused on the tech scandal shaking up Virginia's race for Attorney General. The two candidates vying to be the state's next governor face off tonight in a highly anticipated debate. You are supposed to be the leader of your party currently and you're telling people to be divisive. to be rage, enraged about things? What kind of a leader does that? And I'm Josh Holmes. I've got the final word on the Fox News rundown. Not guilty. That's about all, James Comey said, in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, when the former FBI director was arraigned. I'm innocent. So let's have a trial. That's what James Comey posted in a video on social media after he was indicted last month. My family and I have known for years that there are costs. to standing up to Donald Trump. Well, the president calls coming one of the worst human beings in the country and cheered the case against the ex-FBI director that he fired in his first term as justice. It all dates back to the FBI's probe into the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election. And at the heart of the case, a 2020 Senate hearing. On May 3rd, 2017, in this committee, Chairman Chuck Grassley asked you point blank, quote, Have you ever been an anonymous source and news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation? You responded under oath, quote, never. Then Republican Senator Ted Cruz asked James Comey about Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testifying James Comey did authorize it. What Mr. McCabe is saying and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true. One or the other is false. Who's telling the truth? I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by what the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017. And that has led to two charges, including making a false statement to Congress. The substantive nature of the case, whether the government can prove it or not, is pretty small. It's pretty light. It's did he lie to Congress or not about leaking information. Jim Trustee is a former federal prosecutor and an ex-Trump lawyer. The tricky part is the procedural. And you've heard already from Pat Fitzgerald, very talented, well-known attorney representing Mr. James Comey, that he intends to file some motions that attack that process. So whether it's about President Trump's comments, whether it's about Lindsey Halligan's installation as the interim U.S. attorney or how the grand jury had the case presented to him, all that is coming. And that's where there's going to be a lot of fireworks. But it's hard to know whether they're going to get traction at this point, even if there's room for criticism.

about the process. That doesn't necessarily mean there's a constitutional violation leading to dismissal. Obstruction of a congressional proceeding is the other charge that is against the former FBI director. What is that versus the line to Congress? Very little distinction. And for instance, if way down the road there was a conviction for both, I wouldn't expect anything consecutive in the nature of any sentence. But I think it's a little broader. It might be more government friendly than I first thought of it, meaning that sometimes in a false statement case, you can say that the person gave an answer that is technically true, you know, that there's not an actual conflict between statement one and statement two because the questioning was a little unclear and there's room for saying both things can be true at the same. same time. But if they're misleading, if the second comment, even if it's not technically a provable perjury, if it's misleading and it's clear that there was an effort to mislead, it might be a little bit easier under the language of obstruction to make that count than the perjury slash false statement count. But these are kind of angels on a pinhead type things. I mean, you know, we don't know if any of it's ever going to become all that relevant, but I think that's the thinking behind the second count. Now, in the clips that we hear with Ted Cruz... that testimony back in 2020. He references the then deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe and the differences in testimony that they have given related to the authorization of leaks. But it may not even be McCabe, right, who is involved in this so-called leak that James Comey authorized to the media. I just don't think we know yet. I think there's going to be a bill of particulars most likely where the defense says we need to know precisely what the false statement is because it's not a speaking indictment that lays it out in vivid detail. And it talks about person one and person three. Well, the assumption is that could be Hillary Clinton as person number one. I think person number three is actually probably the Columbia University friend of James Comey, Mr. Richmond, who was hired as a special employee for one purpose and one purpose only. to access law enforcement sensitive information and give it to the New York Times. So that's the big starting point universe of James Comey's conduct that I never get passed, that we had an FBI director that wanted to leak information to the Times through his buddy. And I think that could be the heart of this indictment, that it's that relationship that's at work more than McCabe. And frankly, relying on McCabe, to be honest, is not going to be an easy lift for the government if that's where they are.

his mouth according to the OPR report that led to a referral for potential prosecution in D.C. So, you know, there's a lot of room for mischief if you're trying to put up Andy McCabe as a government witness. And both McCabe and James Comey certainly would have a beef with President Trump over the way their ten years ended, right? Look, there's, and let me just kind of morph into the idea of vindictive prosecution. That's one of the things kind of promised up by Mr. James Comey's attorney. Vindictive prosecution is going to be an avenue for them to talk about everything that happened publicly and perhaps privately to get this case off the ground. There's a lot of room for the defense to kind of rummage through. And there's probably a lot of room for a judge to criticize that process. But that's not the same as saying it's a winning motion. And vindictive prosecution normally is where a person has exercised their rights, some lawful right, and they get punished for doing that. Now, of course, we have years of bad words between James Comey. and President Trump, certainly. And not just vindictive prosecution, but also retaliatory prosecution is going to be part of the allegation by the James Comey defense. And also, they planned to bring a motion alleging that Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully appointed as the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. She was given that job by the president. He got rid of Eric Siebert and apparently was unhappy with the progress against... In these cases against James Comey and others, Democrats, it's given them fuel for the president was going after his political rivals. You know Lindsey Halligan. They say that she's not qualified. You worked with her, correct? Yeah, and look, I consider myself a friend, and I think that, frankly, that she was put in a pretty difficult position to be, you know, parachuted in. And maybe, you know, she was fully agreeing to take the position. But, you know, to be the interim U.S. attorney under these circumstances is like an immediate trial by fire. I think the president's like of her or his desire to have her in that position is based on having years of exposure to her and making her judgment. And I can say that even though she doesn't have the experience you might expect for somebody in a U.S. attorney's office. office although again that's not ironclad, that she does have good street sense, good judgment, good litigation instincts. But again, she's not trying this case. So she'll be part of that procedural attack, whether you call it outrageous misconduct, whether you call it vindictive, selective. There's different categories that Fitzgerald can play with here. But I think in a lot of ways, it's not going to matter that much because you have a grand jury that issues the indictment. And then you have trial attorneys that have come up from Raleigh that are going to actually handle the trial apparently. So, you know, if there's going to be. room for kind of political bloodletting here, but I'm not sure it's going to have any direct effect on what happens to James Comey's chances to go into trial. Now, the attorney in this case also, James Comey's defense, that says they'll bring motions alleging grand jury abuse and outrageous government conduct. Now, do you think that's all part of that, the way that Lindsey Halligan's appointed here?

Yeah, I think it's probably broader than that. I think what they're going to do, it's a little bit of like, you know, throw an awful lot of jelly on the wall and see what sticks. I mean, and there's a lot of room for trying to push the judge to allow for you to get more information than you would normally get. For instance, they go to the judge and they say, judge, You know, this whole grand jury process was crazy. She gets put in there at the last minute. They do an indictment. There was apparently an issue of which indictment was the one that was signed by Lindsay, all sorts of kind of procedural, not necessarily flaws, but irregularities. And I think that is an opportunity to say we need the minutes of the grand jury proceeding. We need to have the actual transcript or tape of everything that happened in that room. And if you're Pat Fitzgerald, what you're hoping for is some sort of sloppiness, some sort of editorialized. about the law, perhaps by Lindsey or whoever was in the grand jury. And that can give you a hook to invalidate the indictment on procedural grounds. But the idea that President Trump has said a whole lot of stuff about James Comey, You can imagine the government's response is going to be, we're not the ones walking on the beach and rearranging sea shells. They're going to tee off on James Comey for being the political guy he is, for having five different OPR investigations that concluded he was breaking DOJ and FBI policy. So he doesn't come into this with the clean hands that he thinks he has. I think there's a lot of room for both sides to kind of publicly trash each other. But again, the standard for getting a case dismissed for that kind of misconduct. is very, very hard. But on the facts of the case, how do you rate from difficult to easy getting a conviction in a lying to Congress type case? So look, it's new territory in general, but the legal elements are actually pretty simple. And I think it's going to come down to exactly what people like Richmond have said, perhaps what McCabe has said. Maybe they interviewed newspaper reporters from the New York Times. We don't really know what the scope of the government's evidence is yet. But it could be factually very challenging for the government or fairly strong, but it ain't going to be long. I mean, this is a case that could be tried in like three days. It's all done. While James Comey and Democrats call this case Trump political revenge, Republicans say it was Democrats who weaponized the government in the Biden presidency. Senator Josh Hawley tells Fox. They were trying to destroy the entire Republican Party, beginning, of course, with Donald Trump, who was their number one target, and sweeping up anybody associated with them and anybody who was standing up against Joe Biden. Holly. was one of nine Republican lawmakers we found out this week had their phone records tracked by special counsel Jack Smith during the investigation into the 2021 Capitol riot.

If Jack Smith or any prosecutor is having agents gather up phone records, toll records for anybody, it's not just idle chit-chat. It's not just out of curiosity. They are looking to either build leads to go talk to people or to go up on a wire. So I don't think there's a very innocent explanation for Jack Smith's overreach in this case. And yeah, I lived a lot of weaponization. And what I would tell you is, look, I mean, it doesn't help probably when there's a whole bunch of... public give and take between DOJ or the White House and the public about, you know, why or why not people are being prosecuted. I mean, I've always been a fan of kind of leaving it to the courthouse, but I think there's fundamental differences. And one is that in the case of this false statement case, There's no inventiveness to the crime. We're not sitting here scratching our head saying, you know, what is a false statement to Congress? Is that even a crime? You know, compare that to Alvin Bragg, where they have to wait till closing argument to find out how, let's say, felony, where there's this inventive defrauding of the United States as kind of insurrection light, which was what Jack indicted for on the DC case. And, of course, rewriting the Rules of the Presidential Records Act and executive privilege and attorney-client privilege to get to the Mar-a-Lago indictment. So I would say starting point is, There's no inventiveness, and that takes it out of the category of most lawfare. And secondly, and I know people will debate me on this, but there's not the type of prosecutorial misconduct in the investigation. I saw things that were outrageous about blowing up attorney-client privilege, about grand jury abuse, about threatening a lawyer with his judgeship that he had pending if he didn't flip his guy against Donald Trump. So there were horrible instances of kind of historic, I think, misconduct by the prosecution team. public Kevin Warsh right here in terms of Eric Siebert being fired and Lindsay being parachuted in. But that's a far cry from active misconduct by the investigators going after somebody with a high profile position. So I understand where people are going and they want to argue about the bona fides of this indictment. And again, we'll see it play out in a live time in about a month with this judge. But I think there's fundamental differences between what the Biden White House did with DOJ and Jack Smith and this case. Jim Trustee, former federal prosecutor, former Trump attorney. Great to have you on the show. Thanks so much. My pleasure. Good to see it.

Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat, emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan, $15.15 a month a month a month. Even unlimited. That's it. Happy ending. Zero tears. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three months, $90 for $1.90 for $1.20 per month. Taxes and fees extra. Initial term only greater than 50 gigabytes. See terms. I'm Janice Dean. Join me every Sunday as I focus on stories of hope and people who are truly rays of sunshine in their community and across the world. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcast.com. This is Josh Holmes with your Fox News commentary coming up. There is an election next month in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is term limited, so his lieutenant governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, is trying to earn a promotion from Virginia voters. She faces off tonight at Norfolk State University in a highly anticipated gubernatorial debate with her opponent, former Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger. But surely to be on the minds of both candidates and those watching at home is the controversy surrounding another statewide election. In Virginia's attorney general race, the Democrat nominee former state delegate Jay Jones, who is trying to replace current Attorney General Jason Miaris, is facing mounting backlash over texts he sent in 2022 to a Republican colleague wanting to save bullets for then House Speaker Todd Gilbert. Jay Jones did release a statement apologizing for the remarks saying he regrets the messages and is embarrassed by them. Democrats have called the violent texts indefensible and disgusting, but if otherwise largely stood by him. Republicans, meanwhile, have called for Jay Jones to drop out. However, ending his campaign would be a problem for Democrats as the election is less than a month away. And early voting has already begun. Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears has released an ad tying Abigail Spanberger to Jay Jones and told Fox News Martha McCallum this past Tuesday. This man, Jay Jones, he cannot be attorney general because what he's doing is he's calling for the murder of his political opponent and the murder of his opponent's children. No polls have been taken since the Jay Jones text controversy begun. But before then, Abigail Spanberger held a double-digit lead in most polls. It is crunch time in the campaign, and tonight's debate will be an opening for the Republican. We are working very, very hard. We are hitting all the right places, and that means we're going everywhere. Windsom Winsome Earle-Sears is the lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. We spoke late last week about her campaign before the tech scandal broke. Including those places that possibly, you know, would be voting for her because I'd be representing all of Virginia.

And so we're talking about the issues that matter to people most. Taxes, we're finding that's what they want to talk about. How much money that they work so hard for do they get to keep? And for me, we're going to keep giving them back their money. It's $9 billion so far. And that's billion with a B. And they want to make sure that they're safe. Their inventories are safe. Their children can walk down the street. And then, of course, we're going to continue to create jobs. We have to have that because that's, of course, what fuels our economy and we're not stupid as opposed to what my opponent wants to do, which is to get rid of your right to work and force you to join a union and tax you have to death. And, of course, she's soft on crime. There appears to be some anxiety about the job market and the overall economy. What are you hearing from voters out on the campaign trail? So that's exactly what we're trying to do. We know how to create jobs in Virginia. In fact, we just announced Afton Scientific two days ago, and they're expanding. their footprint here in virginia they're building a plant and what they're going to be doing is producing medicine for arthritis for cancer etc and they join a whole host of new jobs that we've announced because well we know how to do it here we are keeping taxes low we are making sure that of course we're not forcing new regulations on them in fact we've gotten rid of 91 000 different regulations that were job killers And of course, we're making sure that we have the side pads ready, shovel ready. They're not having to dig dirt. And, you know, we also just announced that Eli Lilly is coming to Virginia. And we beat out 400 applicants in 46 other states. Think about that. So nothing speaks about success, like even more success. And my opponent Abigail was never a part of any of this. And that's to her detriment because she's going to need on the job training. But I don't. I'm ready to take it. command on day one. Virginia is purple in many cases, and a tricky one for Republicans recently. When you look at incumbent Governor Glenn Youngkin's model from 2021, is that something you're patterning yourself after that you think you can win with this year? Well, of course, every election is different. And so while there are some things that we're going to do the same necessarily, we're going to do some things differently just because you have to respond to the environment around you. But the message is still the same. I have been here when we've been producing the great results. My opponent never had a seat at the table. And from what the polls are telling us, the people like what they're experiencing in Virginia. We have brought on 15,000, almost close to 15,500 jobs that never existed. And when I say jobs, I should say businesses, high-paying businesses that never existed.

We don't need this policy. And I would like my opponent to finally come out and say she has decided against this policy and she wishes she never voted to force girls to undress in locker rooms with boys. Your opponent, Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, has been focusing a lot of her energy on President Trump. How much will the popularity of the president factor in this Virginia race? So apparently my opponent, as well as the rest of her whole ticket, is running against President Trump. And I'm just trying to figure out why. Because he's already won his election. Maybe they've forgotten that. And so they want to continue the nonsense when people really want to ask, where are you on my taxes? But we already know because she said she's going to increase taxes. They want to know where are you when it comes to crime. But we already know because she voted against keeping our borders safe. She has already said she's going to create a sanctuary state in Virginia if she wins, which she won't because we have common sense. She's already said, well, she is going to make sure that we defund the police and get rid of their qualified immunity, which is what she voted for and she took money for. And, of course, she's not going to be able to create jobs. These are the issues that the people want to talk about. How has Doge the effort to make government more efficient impacted the Commonwealth of Virginia, considering a lot of Virginians do work for the federal government? You know, I know what it's like to lose a job. It's not fun at all. And of course, you're wondering what will happen next. I've been there. And that's why we in Virginia, we've created over 250,000 job openings so that if anyone wants to take those jobs, it's available. And we've even had the opportunity to put over $300 plus million in the budget. so that we have child care opportunities as well. We've been trying to think of what we can do to help. But I tell you what Abigail Spanberger is not doing. All summer long, she's been talking about how she loves federal workers. Well, you know what love looks like? It's for her, Abigail Spanberger, to tell our two senators, Kane and Warner, to get back to work, go and vote to keep our federal government open. It is shut down now because we have two senators in Virginia that are not voting to keep our federal workers in their positions, in their jobs, getting a paycheck. So that's what love looks like. But my opponent, Abigail Spanberger, has been playing political football with federal workers all this time. But she doesn't really have any love for them. Love is a verb. It's an action word. Go do your jobs. Senator Caden and Senator Warner, I'm telling you to do that because Abigail Spanberger has not. Virginia voters are impacted at any time a government shutdown happens. Do you think they will blame Democrats for this shutdown?

Well, for the very reason I gave you, I believe that they're going to blame the Democrats because all we needed was for two senators, Virginia, Senator Kane and Warner, to go do their work and keep our government open. They claim to love our federal workers more than everybody else. But love is not to vote for a shutdown. Love is to keep our government open and our federal workers with the ability to get to work. to get their jobs done. The Republican nominee for Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Winsome Earle-Sears. Thank you so much for your time. Safe travels out on the campaign trail. Thank you for having me. God bless all of you. What is Toyota affordability? It all starts with buying smart, and your Toyota dealer has great deals available to qualified customers on reliable cars and SUVs, including the redesigned Rav4, Spacious Grand Highlander, sporty Camrys, and corollas. It means driving for less, with efficient hybrid and plug-in hybrid options available throughout the lineup, extending your overall driving range and delivering great MPGs, saving you money at the pump. And it means trading for more. Toyota is known for building long-lasting vehicles and has the best resale value brand according to Kelly Blue Book, your Toyota can be worth thousands more than average when it's time to trade in. That's Toyota affordability. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. Shop Toyota.com or your local dealer for deals and details. Vehicle's projected resale value is specific to the 26 model year. For more information, visit Kelly Blue Books, KB.com. Toyota brand average resale value is 53% versus the average vehicle at 45%. Toyota, let's go places. Fox News Audio presents Blood Mountain, one woman's disappearance and shockwaves across the nation. The ensuing search for a suspect revealed something more sinister. A serial killer was on the loose. Listen and follow starting October 14th at foxtruecrime.com. Subscribe to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. It's time for your Fox News Commentary. Josh Holmes. What's on your mind? Chances are, if today's Democratic Party is accusing their opposition of something, it's because they've already been there and they've already done that. They told us they needed to win last election to quote-unquote save democracy. Never mind that we live in a constitutional republic. Their commitment to democracy was such that they nominated a Democratic candidate who didn't receive a single primary vote. They call President Trump a dictator, a tyrant. And worse. He's violating our systems and our norms, they say. It's not our systems or our norms that these Democrats are concerned with. It's theirs. And it's one of no accountability and the most dictatorial, undemocratic, and tyrannical behavior ever exhibited by government. Under Barack Obama, the IRS targeted conservative nonprofits who posed a problem to their elections.

Attempts, they had attempts to compel nonprofits to disclose their donor lists. They decry the freedom of the press, but in 2013, the Department of Justice secretly obtained two months of phone records for reporters at the Associated Press. Of course, Biden, as we all know, prosecuted his political opponent and President Trump and nearly all of his associates. Now we find out that Jack Smith was reviewing phone logs of sitting Republican U.S. senators, a pretty clear-cut constitutional problem. They also do more subtle things. Spend billions of taxpayer dollars on green new energy scams that their donors are the primary beneficiaries of while decrying self-dealing at the same time. Don't forget, they passed the Affordable Care Act that made health care unaffordable and an inflation reduction act. that exploded inflation. Oh, and they said the government shutdowns do irreparable damage. You can see the revised opinion on all of that playing out today. So the next time you hear a progressive Democrat accusing President Trump or Republicans of something, listen very carefully. Seems like history would suggest they've already done it. I'm Josh Holmes, co-host of The Ruthless Podcast.

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