Former FBI director James Comey has been indicted on charges of making false statements and obstruction of a congressional hearing after pleading not guilty. Comey was appointed director of the FBI by then-President Obama in 2013, and terminated by President Trump in 2017 based on recommendations by the Department of Justice regarding his management of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private emails prior to the 2016 election.
The allegations stem from a September 2020 hearing into Comey’s involvement with the investigation of an alleged Russian collaboration that helped elect President Trump to his first term, during which the former Director allegedly lied when asked if he had authorized an FBI agent to leak details of the investigation to the press, allowing it to become part of the American political lexicon without any proof or purpose outside of damaging Trump’s campaign.
An inquiry into the origins of the FBI’s original insistence on Russian involvement, known as the Durham report, did not conclude until the Spring of 2023. The analysis found that the FBI had made several inappropriate maneuvers regarding the opening of and investigation surrounding the alleged connection between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. No evidence of cooperation was ever found between the groups, but the allegations significantly stymied the President’s first run for the Oval Office, and potentially prevented his second attempt. These exonerating findings came seven years after the original suggestions of collusion.
The original investigation over which James Comey presided, which was later found to have meritless origins, was launched on July 31, 2016, just three months before the general election. Polling conducted even years later in 2019 found that, despite the conclusion of the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the Russia connection exonerating the President, nearly half of Americans still believed Trump had worked directly with Putin leading into his first election. The Democratic machine, in lockstep with a complicit liberal media, had spread the story with such enthusiasm and certainty that even official legal findings were not enough to quell the rumor. Now, the American people may finally have some answers surrounding the decade-long saga.
Former Director James Comey will now answer for his alleged role in the bogus investigation of Trump/Russia collusion and perhaps divulge information potentially implicating former President Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, or the Democratic National Committee. Both the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s campaign faced fines in 2022 from the Federal Elections Commission as neither had disclosed the funds they spent manufacturing the bogus dossier upon which claims of Russian collusion were based. The two groups spent at a minimum of a collective $1 million on the now-debunked opposition research.
If it is found that a sitting FBI Director used his office to manufacture an investigation that reverberated throughout three election cycles, cost the taxpayers untold millions, and orchestrated the leaking of unverified information, the consequences should be swift and inform changes surrounding oversight moving forward. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation alone, which cleared Trump of collusion with the Russians, cost $32 million.
Who is to blame for the origin and proliferation of the story regarding the Russia/Trump hoax? Could former President Obama be found complicit?
Hilary Gunn is a Connecticut native with a degree in Criminal Justice from the George Washington University. She works for a nonprofit and has previously collaborated with the CT GOP as an activist, political campaign manager and field director, and social media organizer. She is currently serving in her fourth term of municipal office and has previously acted as a delegate on the Republican Town Committee.