Former FBI chief James Comey has been indicted on two charges by the justice department — one count of making a false statement and another count of obstructing a congressional proceeding. According to several media reports, the former charge is linked to an FBI investigation related to Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state, who also ran against Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential elections in the US.
What is the Hillary Clinton link in James Comey's indictment?
Former FBI director James Comey sworn in during a hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Capitol Hill on June 8, 2017 in Washington, DC. (File/AFP)
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The first charge in the indictment, as shared by The New York Times, alleged that James Comey “willfully and knowingly” made a “false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement” in September 2020 during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which he reaffirmed his 2017 testimony that he did not disclose or authorise anyone else to disclose information about the FBI probes linked to both Trump and Hillary.
During the 2020 hearing, the indictment says that Comey said that he had not “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports” regarding an FBI probe concerning ‘Person 1’.
“I stand by the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017,” Comey said to Republican US Senator Ted Cruz during the 2020 hearing.
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The indictment further alleges that Comey’s statement was “false” as he “then and there knew” that he had “authorized Person 3 to serve as an anonymous source in news reports regarding an FBI investigation concerning Person 1”.
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The indictment further alleges that Comey’s statement was “false” as he “then and there knew” that he had “authorized Person 3 to serve as an anonymous source in news reports regarding an FBI investigation concerning Person 1”.
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According to several media reports, the prosecutors are referring to a media leak related to an FBI probe into Hillary Clinton.
ABC reported, citing sources, that ‘Person 1’ in the indictment is Hillary Clinton while ‘Person 3’ is Daniel Richman, Comey’s close friend and former personal lawyer.
However, it is still unclear which news reports the prosecutors were referring to but a Reuters report states “it appears to relate to a Wall Street Journal report from October 2016 about an FBI probe into the Clinton family's charitable foundation.”
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Home/World News/Explained: Ex-FBI chief James Comey's indictment has a Hillary Clinton link
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