Despite the Justice Department (DOJ) being in a state of “turmoil” due to its aggressive push to prosecute James Comey, the former FBI director who’s drawn President Donald Trump’s ire, the agency is now "weighing whether to seek” a third indictment, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
The DOJ first indicted Comey last year on charges related to making false statements to Congress, charges that were ultimately tossed out by a judge. Issued last week, the DOJ’s second indictment of him stemmed from a photograph Comey had published on social media of seashells, a photograph some conservatives have interpreted as a threat on Trump’s life.
Now, according to the Post, DOJ officials are weighing whether or not to pursue a third indictment, this one related to allegations that the former FBI director had leaked classified material to the press.
While critics have intensely scrutinized the merit of Comey’s first two indictments, their mere existence, even if tossed out by a judge, carries significant long-term costs to law enforcement agencies nationwide, John Keller, former acting head of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, told the Post.
“Criminal investigations and prosecutions based on political vendettas delegitimize law enforcement,” Keller said. “For career prosecutors who have spent their lives seeking to promote justice through impartial apolitical enforcement, this new era is offensive and demoralizing.”
Another former DOJ official who worked in the agency’s Public Integrity Section, Jonathan Kravis, told the Post that the indictments against Comey could even jeopardize unrelated future criminal investigations.
“There are both short-term and long-term costs,” Kravis said. “The department and FBI lose some credibility. That’s credibility with grand juries or juries. And the FBI’s credibility with sources and in interviews … it’s not just this case, it extends into other cases.”