That knowing the indictment of James Comey and what happens next

The United States Ministry of Justice charged James Comey for perjury for testimonies he gave to the congress five years ago.

The news gives the old FBI boss under the spotlight almost a decade after playing a key role in the drama of the 2016 electoral campaign.

After a childhood in New York and New Jersey, the young lawyer worked for various federal prosecutors, notably Rudy Giuliani in the South New York district, in the late 1980s.

Later, he made waves as a principal prosecutor against the famous housewife Martha Stewart, imprisoned for lies about financial misconduct in 2004.

He climbed the levels of the Ministry of Justice, but left for the private sector before President Barack Obama appointed him to lead the FBI in 2013.

Its action as director in the last weeks of the 2016 presidential election campaign, investigating the use by Hillary Clinton by a private messaging server, caused a storm.

Breaking with the agency standards, Mr. Comey announced 11 days before the day of the ballot he reopening of the case due to the discovery of new emails. Then a week later, the case was ranked again without any other measure taken.

The Inspector General criticized the treatment by Mr. Comey of the case and Clinton blamed his actions for his electoral defeat.

A few months later, he was unemployed, dismissed by Donald Trump, the new president.

At the time, Mr. Comey was investigating the interference of the Russian elections and if there were links between Moscow and Trump’s campaign.

The White House said the shot was above Mr. Comey’s treatment of the Clinton probe. Democrats said it was due to the investigation in Russia.

This statement received an additional weight when Trump said in an interview that Russia had been in his mind by acting against Mr. Comey.

Following the dismissal, the investigation was put in the hands of a special lawyer.

This led dozens of criminal accusations against Trump campaign staff and partners for offenses, including computer hacking and financial crimes.

But he did not find that the Trump campaign and Russia had conspired to influence the elections.

The two -page indictment is short of details, but he says that Mr. Comey has been accused of an accusation of false declarations and another obstruction of justice.

He maintains that he is innocent and will prove this before the court.

The two charges relate to the appearance of Mr. Comey by video before the Senate judicial committee in September 2020.

He was asked about his management of the Clinton affair and another investigation into the interference of the pro-Trump elections by Russia.

Prosecutors allege that Mr. Comey misleaded the Senate saying that he had not authorized a leak in the media about an FBI investigation.

The five -year limitation period for the costs based on this hearing would have expired next week.

It is not clear according to the indictment which part of Mr. Comey’s evidence is used by prosecutors, or what leak they refer to.

A key exchange was when Senator Ted Cruz referred Mr. Comey to testimonies he had given to Congress three years earlier, in 2017.

He denied being a source of stories on Trump or Clinton surveys and denied having authorized anyone in the FBI to be an anonymous source in reports.

Mr. Comey told Cruz: “I am next to the testimony you summed up that I gave in May 2017.”

Some Republicans cited this response from Mr. Comey as potentially false because they say that he was challenged by his FBI deputy at the time, Andrew McCabe.

They indicate a report by the Inspector General of the Ministry of Justice in 2018 in which Mr. McCabe would have told investigators that Comey had authorized him to disclose information to the press.

The president urged his attorney general last weekend to take care of some of his opponents aggressively, appointing James Comey among them.

The fact that these accusations were filed a few days later, the president’s criticisms declared that he armed the Ministry of Justice for his own ends, breaking the independence of the political interference that the agency is traditionally supposed to defend. The Conservatives argue that Norm was already broken with what they consider as partisan investigations against Trump.

When news emerged from the indictment, Trump posted: “Justice in America! One of the worst human beings to which this country has ever been exposed is James Comey, the former corrupt leader of the FBI.”

His antipathy to Mr. Comey dates back years.

After his dismissal, Comey criticized Trump and wrote a book telling conversations in which he declared that the president had acted as a boss of the crowd by putting him pressure to abandon the investigation in Russia.

Comey will appear before the court for indictment on October 9 where the accusations will be read and he will appeal to a plea. The case will then go to the trial.

Trump said there may be more charges against other political figures.

He urged prosecutors to accuse the Democratic Senator Adam Schiff and the Prosecutor General of New York Letitia James.

The democratic chief of the Hakeem Jeffries Chamber denounced his actions as “a shameful attack on the rule of law”.