WASHINGTON — The Trump administration's case against former FBI Director James Comey should be a warning sign to Americans, 42 retired judges wrote in an open letter first obtained by NBC News.
In their letter, the former federal and state judges warned that the “rights and liberties of every American are in grave danger today, as President Donald Trump continues to corruptly abuse the power of his office by directing the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to target his critics and his perceived political enemies for investigation and criminal prosecution.”
“All Americans have an obligation as citizens of this great country to speak out against this unprecedented attack on our freedom of speech and to demand that Donald Trump’s attacks on our right to speak freely without fear of being persecuted and prosecuted by our government must stop now,” they added.
The letter includes a mix of retired federal and state-level judges, including 10 who were either appointed by Republicans or elected as Republicans. The effort was organized by the Democracy Defenders Fund, a nonpartisan group.
“The Trump Administration will continue to deliver the truth to the American people and restore integrity to our justice system. It is the ultimate hypocrisy to accuse President Trump of what Joe Biden actively did throughout his presidency: engaging in lawfare against his political opponents. The indictment against Comey, by a grand jury, speaks for itself, and the Trump Administration looks forward to fair proceedings in the courts,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A federal grand jury indicted Comey on two counts Thursday — making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. (The grand jury rejected a third count.)
The charges came days after Trump publicly pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi to bring a case against Comey over congressional testimony he gave in 2020, when he stood by testimony he gave in 2017 saying he did not authorize the leak of information to the media about an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
The case was brought by Lindsey Halligan, the new acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Trump had named Halligan — who was on his defense team in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case but has no prosecutorial experience — to the position just hours earlier.
Halligan was put in place after Trump expressed frustration that her predecessor, Erik S. Siebert, had not brought charges against Comey and others he perceived to be his political foes.
In their new letter, the former judges wrote that Trump’s “every threat and every pretextual investigation and prosecution further corrupts America’s democracy and Rule of Law,” and that while the Constitution doesn’t ban Trump from firing federal prosecutors, no prosecutor “should ever be fired for refusing to bring baseless charges” against Trump’s adversaries and critics.
Comey led the investigation into Trump’s possible ties to Russia; the probe concluded that Trump’s 2016 campaign did not collude with Russian operatives.
Comey said in a video posted after his indictment that he was innocent and that he had "great confidence in the federal judicial system."
The retired judges also wrote that, under the Trump presidency, "no American is safe from criminal prosecution, regardless of whether they have violated the law and regardless of their political or ideological views."
"For the first time in American history," they continued, "the bedrock First Amendment right of American citizens to disagree with their president and their government and to express their views and opinions on any matter they wish — including their president — is under unprecedented attack by the President of the United States."
