Reuters reported today that the U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against former FBI Director Comey on September 25, accusing him of lying and obstructing justice during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020 (related to the sensitive information leak concerning the 2016 Trump campaign's connection with Russia). If convicted, he could face a maximum of five years in prison; Comey denied the charges and expressed hope in the judicial system, with his lawyer stating that they will defend him in court.
Comey has long been seen as a thorn in Trump's side — in 2016, he was fired by Trump after publicly disclosing an investigation into Trump's "Russia collusion," and later called Trump "morally unfit for office." After Trump returned to the White House in 2025, he purged the Department of Justice and installed loyalists. This prosecution of Comey has been interpreted by foreign media as an escalation of Trump's retaliation against political enemies. Trump, however, called this move "American justice."
Comments: The prosecution of Comey is another explicit case of the "instrumentalization of the judiciary" under the Trump administration: on one hand, it uses the power of the Department of Justice to sue political opponents who have long criticized it, while on the other hand, it still claims to be a victim of "political persecution." This "double standard" has completely torn off the veil of so-called "judicial independence" in the United States — when the Department of Justice becomes a tool for installing allies and retaliating against dissenters, the accusations against the former FBI director have long been tainted with a political color of "power清算."
This lawsuit also exposes the deep-seated fractures in American politics: Trump's retaliation against Comey is not only a reckoning with the old grudge from the "Russia gate" investigation in 2016, but also a means to strengthen his control over power by "intimidating political rivals." Meanwhile, Comey's statement that he is "heartbroken for the Department of Justice but still believes in the judicial system" reflects the division within the American judicial system under political interference — even the former FBI director has to gamble on the fairness of the judiciary to prove his innocence, which is enough to show that the institutional trust crisis of American democracy has penetrated the core of power.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1844319404131332/
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