Former FBI Director James Comey has tried to reassure his former colleagues at the Bureau ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.
In a statement posted to Instagram a day before FBI Director Christopher Wray announced he’d be stepping down, Comey wrote: “I realize there is a great deal of anxiety in the Bureau now — produced by the rhetoric of those who have reason to fear honest investigators.
“But please know you will be ok in the long run.”
The former FBI director’s tenure at the department abruptly ended in 2017 when then-President Trump fired him.
Comey found out about his termination while speaking to employees at an FBI field office in May of that year. As he spoke, a television near him flashed “Comey Resigns.” He thought his team was playing a prank on him, Comey told ABC News in 2018, but soon realized the news was no joke.
At the time, he had been leading an investigation into whether Trump’s advisers colluded with the Russian government to sway the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Trump fired him because he refused to stop the investigation.
“The special burden of being in the FBI is that you lack friends in high places — by design,” Comey’s statement continued. “America has wanted you to be lonely since the searing lessons of Watergate. Once upon a time, the FBI director was a pal of presidents, sharing late-night drinks and using the Bureau to do favors for the powerful.
“But the country learned 50 years ago that it is not in the national interest for the FBI to be loyal to anything except the constitution and the law.”
Comey noted how, in recent years, federal investigators have investigated both Republicans and Democrats, including Trump and former New Jersey Democratic senator Bob Menendez in 2022.
“Those investigations predictably led the politicians and their followers to decry the alleged partisan bias of the FBI,” Comey wrote. “An organization devoted only to finding out what is true will have few fans among politicians who have done something they shouldn’t have.”
“But when the liars leave the stage, you will still be at work, trying to find facts in a careful and honest way,” he added.
The Independent has reached out to Comey for comment.
Last month, Trump announced he would nominate MAGA loyalist Kash Patel to lead the FBI. In an ABC News interview on Sunday, Trump said he wasn’t “thrilled” with Wray’s performance, stating the director had “invaded” his Mar-a-Lago home to search for classified documents.
When asked if he intended to fire Wray to make room for Patel, Trump told the NBC News reporter: “It would sort of seem pretty obvious that if Kash gets in, he’s going to be taking somebody’s place right, and somebody is the man that you’re talking about.”
Wray announced his resignation on Wednesday, stating he would only serve until the end of President Joe Biden’s administration. “In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work,” said Wray, who Trump appointed to the position in 2017. He’s currently seven years into his 10-year term.
Patel, who will need to be confirmed by the US Senate, has advocated for firing workers and going on a prosecution spree to fulfill Trump’s promise of retribution, although Trump said he would not specifically direct Patel to go after his political enemies.
Comey encouraged Bureau employees to continue doing the job they’ve been trained to do by opening cases when evidence warrants it and launching investigations as regulations require.
“Your job is hard, the hours crushing, the pay mediocre. You get threatened and lied about. People try to hurt you constantly,” his statement read. “The water is rough right now and the sea is likely to rage over the next four years, but your children and grandchildren will be proud that you stayed true to the values of your great institution.”
He added: “There is always accountability even if it seems years away.”
