Todd Blanche (33:21):
Good afternoon. Today, a grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of North Carolina returned an indictment against James Comey on two counts. The first count is that on or about May 15th of last year, he knowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life of and to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States. Count two, same day, May 15th, 2025, that the defendant, James Comey, knowingly and willfully transmitting an interstate commerce a communication that contained a threat to kill the President of the United States. Both of these counts carry a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.
(34:05)
So, I think it's fair to say that threatening the life of anybody is dangerous and potentially a crime. Threatening the life of the President of the United States will never be tolerated by the Department of Justice. Over the past year, this department has charged dozens of cases involving threats against all sorts of individuals. We take these seriously, every single one of them.
(34:36)
For example, just today in the Northern District of Florida, there was a guilty plea from an individual who threatened multiple political leaders, including President Trump. In the Eastern District of North Carolina, where this case was indicted earlier today, there are multiple threats cases very similar to this one, including one where the defendant pled guilty recently to threatening former President Biden. Another one that's scheduled to go to trial this summer. Another individual was indicted for threatening Tom Homan.
(35:10)
I say that to say that while this case is unique and this indictment stands out because of the name of the defendant, his alleged conduct is the same kind of conduct that we will never tolerate and that we will always investigate and regularly prosecute. I want to take a moment to thank the hardworking members of the FBI who investigated this case over the past 11 months or so, the United States Secret Service, who also assisted in this investigation, and the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, led by United States Attorney Ellis Boyle, who's standing to my right.
(35:51)
This was an investigation that remains ongoing, that's been ongoing for about a year, and that's all we're going to say about it
Todd Blanche (36:00):
Today, I will let the US Attorney Boyle speak now and then after that, Director Patel. Thank you.
US Attorney Boyle (36:10):
Thank you, Mr. Attorney General. Earlier today a grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina returned a true bill indicting Mr. James Comey with committing two felonies. Count one, he knowingly and willfully made a threat to kill and to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States in violation of 18 USC 871(a). Count two, he knowingly and willfully transmitted an interstate and foreign commerce, a communication that contained a threat to kill President Trump in violation of 18 USC 875(c). Mr. Comey will be given every form of due process all citizens are entitled to receive to include a trial by a jury of his peers. In the Eastern District of North Carolina, it doesn't matter who you are, we take all threat cases seriously and prosecute anyone who violates federal law regardless of title or status. Thank you.
Director Patel (37:32):
Thank you. As you heard from the Attorney General and the US Attorney, former FBI Director James Comey has now been indicted for two felony counts. While many of you may read this indictment and view this matter as a simple investigation, it is the farthest thing from that. Every single investigation, this FBI and our partners at the Department of Justice undertake, especially those that involve the threats to harm or hurt or even kill individuals, whether they behold public office or civilians in our country, are met with the same measure of investigative prowess and tools and personnel in partnership with the Department of Justice as anyone else. As the US attorney indicated, James Comey will be afforded every matter of due process under the United States Constitution. And as the Attorney General indicated, this has been a case that's been investigated over the past nine, 10, 11 months.
(38:18)
These cases take time. Our investigators work methodically. They are career agents, career prosecutors who work these matters. They call the balls and strikes in the field as they see fit pursuant to the facts of the case and the law. They took that information and made a presentment to a grand jury. A jury of a peers in the district in which the alleged crime took place, and that grand jury spoke, and that grand jury returned a two count indictment against James Comey. James Comey allegedly threatened the life of the President of the United States. And as you all now know, shortly after posting that threat, he deleted that threat and then issued an apology. All of that information was presented to the grand jury, and Mr. Comey will have his day in court and his ability to speak to a jury of his peers. Thank you.
Todd Blanche (39:09):
Thank you. We'll just take a couple of questions.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Mr. Attorney General, the Justice Department in this filing today also issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Comey. Is it your belief that he is a continued public threat? And is there a request also for detention that you anticipate will be made in this case?
Todd Blanche (39:32):
The Department of Justice does not issue arrest warrants, grand juries do. And so the grand jury returned an indictment and arrest warrant. I expect that there will be communication with Mr. Comey's counsel and we'll go from there. This case will proceed like hundreds of others do every year. There will be some sort of arraignment set by the judge or assigned to the magistrate judge, and when that happens, you'll know about it.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
But this is being handled differently from the last time he was indicted. That's my reference. In this case, the department requested an arrest warrant, right?
Todd Blanche (40:10):
Well, I don't think that it's public or clear what the department requested. The grand jury issued an arrest warrant. Go ahead. Yes.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Sir, how will you prove intent when, as the director had acknowledged, Mr. Comey said he did not associate 86 with doing harm and he took it down promptly, said it was political speech, not an intent to harm the president.
Todd Blanche (40:33):
Well, it's not... This case was indicted today. This conduct occurred about a year ago, May 15th of last year. There's been a tremendous amount of investigation. And how do you prove intent in any case? You prove intent with witnesses, with documents, with the defendant himself, to the extent it's appropriate, and that's how it will prove intent in this case. And so I think that talking about what Mr. Comey will or will not do if there's a trial, when there's a trial, it's not... It's very premature for me to do that today.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
General Blanche, I want to ask you a quick question about, there's a number of other different types of conduct Comey has been accused of over the past. One of them is abuse of FISA warrants. I wanted to ask if there's anything that we could talk about today in regards to that, but on a separate matter, if I may ask any more updates about the ballistics forensics analysis with the shooting that happened over the weekend.
Todd Blanche (41:29):
On the first question, no, there's nothing else to report about any investigations or anything involving Mr. Comey except the indictment that was returned today by the grand jury. I don't have anything further to talk about with the ballistics that are still being analyzed. And I said it yesterday, and every law enforcement member who is speaking on this issue is saying the same thing as they should, which is that this is an ongoing investigation with really, really smart experts trying to understand what happened in that shooting and where the bullets went and ended up and where the bullets came from. And once that is at a place where we can definitively say, to the extent we can definitively say, we will let you know.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Director Comey posted this almost a year ago. Why bring this case now? Did you always feel like this was a strong prosecution or did something change recently?
Todd Blanche (42:19):
This investigation just didn't come now. It's the result of a lot of work by law enforcement over the past year. We don't time when we bring cases around anything other than when the investigation is at a place where we should go to the grand jury, and that's exactly what we did in this case as well.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
As a former FBI director, you may not agree with what he did. Should he be able to turn himself in as a former FBI director? He's not a flight risk?
Todd Blanche (42:47):
I didn't say he can't turn himself in.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
He's not under arrest right now and he may be able to...
Todd Blanche (42:51):
I don't know whether he's under arrest right now. I'm here talking to you. The grand jury issued an arrest warrant. I think that the way that this happens is different in every case. It's fact intensive. It depends on, you're right, who the defendant is. It depends on whether he has counsel. It depends on what the judge wants done. And so I don't know when the judge will schedule an initial arraignment, if that will be scheduled by the magistrate or the district court judge. I am sure... I don't know if you want to speak to that or if it's just something that will come up in the next coming days, you'll know when it happens. As far as what Mr. Comey does between now and then, I'm going to leave that up to the line prosecutors in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the FBI agents and the work that they're doing.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
Do you want to explain why... Director Patel, maybe you said that it's a complicated thing. A lot of people might think it's an easy case. Why did it take so long? I know that you guys chose to go with this now, but to the layman just looking at this case or layperson looking at the case, it was an Instagram post, he apologized. Why did it take so long?
Todd Blanche (43:49):
Well, I'm not going to get into the details of the investigation itself, but a lot of these cases, you could look at when the threats were made and when charges are brought, they're not easy cases. And so we have to... There's a communication that's sent allegedly in this case. And so that means that we have to look at devices. Mr. Comey is a lawyer, he has lawyers, so to the extent that we're looking at materials that are potentially privileged, we have to get a wall, set up a wall and let totally independent lawyers look at those. And so that doesn't happen overnight or quickly. And the statute of limitations of this is five years. We brought it in under one year, so that's really where we're at.
Speaker 5 (44:28):
It certainly is clear that you don't want to talk specifics today, but to the American public, can you at least give us a sense of whether you have hard evidence or evidence that shows that Mr. Comey intended for President Trump to be harmed? And then secondarily, for critics who say, where does free speech end and an actual threat of violence begin?
Todd Blanche (44:54):
I don't know what critics say that, especially today, but it's not a very difficult line to look at. And it's not in my mind, a difficult line for one to cross over one way or the other. We cannot, you are not allowed to threaten the President of the United States of America. That's not my decision. That's Congress's decision in a statute that they passed that we charge multiple times a year. And so whether there is a defense, as you just described, maybe. Maybe there is, but the government will have evidence. I am not going to talk about the evidence that we have that's unfair to him. It's unfair to the prosecutors, but it's enough to say that the grand jury returned an indictment. I'm just going to take one more question.
Mary Margaret (45:34):
Thank you, sir. Mary Margaret with the Daily Wire. Should we expect more indictments of this sort? For example, in 2020, Gretchen Whitmer did a TV hit with 8645 on her desk in the background. Is that the kind of thing you would pursue? And then just really quickly, should Comey expect to face more charges for his role in the Russia collusion investigations?
Todd Blanche (45:54):
I'm not going to comment on other investigations involving Mr. Comey. He was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia that was dismissed on procedural grounds because of the judge's finding regarding the US attorney, so that case is under appeal. As far as other investigations that are happening, it would not be appropriate or fair for me to comment on that time. As far as other incidents of threats against the President of the United States, those will be investigated. Every case is different. The facts are different. Who makes the threat matters? What the threat says matters.
(46:25)
You're right. The question about intent matters, and we have to prove that, that's something that's our job, and that's something that prosecutors will have to do in front of a jury at the right time. But you cannot compare. It's not fair to the American people. It's not fair to the defendant, and it's certainly not fair to the prosecutors to compare, "Well, if you did it here, why didn't you do it there?" Every case is different, but there's one thing that will never be different, which is that you cannot threaten to kill the President of the United States, full stop. All right. Thanks a lot guys.
Speaker 5 (46:56):
Did President Trump's message to Pam Bondi saying that Comey was guilty as hell influence this prosecution?