For years, one name haunted the political establishment — a man once praised as incorruptible, later accused of weaponizing the highest law enforcement agency in the nation.
Now, that same man faces a criminal indictment.
And in the hours after the news broke, a powerful message echoed across Fox News: “The weaponization of the legal system has ended.”
Those words came from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who appeared on Hannity Friday night — a segment that instantly went viral, not only for her fiery tone but for what it symbolized.
A turning point. A reckoning. The end of an era that had once placed former FBI Director James Comey at the center of American politics.
A Day That Shook Washington
When the Justice Department confirmed the indictment Thursday afternoon, it sent shockwaves through Washington.
Comey — the man whose public image once rested on a reputation for integrity — now stood accused of lying to Congress and obstructing an investigation.
Two felony counts.
One fallen icon.
And a nation watching.
For many Americans, especially those who had followed the saga of the Russia probe from the beginning, the moment felt surreal.
How had the country gone from lionizing James Comey as a defender of democracy to seeing him booked on federal charges?
Bondi’s answer was blunt.
“You shouldn’t be nervous any longer,” she told Sean Hannity. “Because Donald Trump is in office — and the weaponization has ended.”
Her words cut through the noise.
A Line in the Sand
Bondi’s statement wasn’t just a soundbite — it was a declaration.
For years, conservatives had accused the FBI and DOJ of becoming political weapons, targeting Trump and his allies while protecting the Washington elite.
Comey, who once led the FBI during some of the most divisive political investigations in modern history, had become a symbol of that imbalance.
Now, Bondi was promising accountability.
“Whether you’re a former FBI director, whether you’re a former head of an intel community, whether you’re a current state or local elected official, whether you’re a billionaire funding organizations to try to keep Donald Trump out of office — everything is on the table,” she said.
Her message was clear: no one, not even a man who once ran the FBI, would be above the law.
The Fall of James Comey
It’s been almost a decade since Comey first dominated national headlines.
In 2016, he was the man who publicly reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server just days before the presidential election — a move that infuriated Democrats and stunned the media.
Months later, he became the man who helped ignite the Russia investigation, authorizing the use of the Steele dossier, a collection of unverified claims about then-candidate Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Moscow.
That dossier, now widely discredited, became the backbone of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s 2016 probe into Trump’s campaign.
The investigation dragged on for years, damaging public trust and deepening the partisan divide.
When Trump fired Comey in May 2017, the political world erupted. His dismissal became the catalyst for the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose two-year investigation ended without charging Trump or any of his aides with collusion.
But the damage was done — and Comey’s name became forever linked to one of the most controversial chapters in U.S. political history.
The Indictment
According to the indictment filed Thursday, Comey faces two federal charges:
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One count of making a false statementwithin the jurisdiction of Congress
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One count of obstruction of a congressional investigation
Prosecutors allege that Comey lied under oath when he claimed during a 2020 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that he had not authorized anyone at the FBI to act as an anonymous source for media leaks.
They also accuse him of obstructing a congressional inquiry into the origins of the Russia investigation by concealing evidence and misleading lawmakers about the FBI’s use of the Steele dossier.
If convicted, Comey could face up to 10 years in federal prison.
But beyond the legal implications, the indictment has reignited a national debate — one that stretches far beyond the courtroom.
“The Weaponization Has Ended”
To Bondi, the indictment represented more than a criminal case — it represented a moral correction.
“We will investigate you, and we will end the weaponization,” she told Hannity. “No longer will there be a two-tier system of justice.”
“We are working hand-in-hand — Director Kash Patel, Todd Blanche, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Radcliffe — going non-stop around the clock. People will be held accountable.”
It was a rare moment of unity among the Trump administration’s top law enforcement officials.
Each had played a role in unraveling the complex web of investigations that had once targeted the president — from Patel’s work uncovering suppressed FBI records to Gabbard’s recent declassification of Obama-era intelligence reports.
Now, that same team was turning the spotlight back on the agencies that once investigated them.
“Burn Bags” and Hidden Files
Just weeks before the indictment, FBI Director Kash Patel had made a startling discovery.
Inside the bureau’s Washington headquarters, agents found several “burn bags” — containers typically used to destroy sensitive materials.
But these weren’t empty.
Inside were thousands of pages of documents tied to Crossfire Hurricane, including internal memos, classified annexes, and even intelligence reports that had never been shared with the Trump administration.
“We just uncovered burn bags filled with hidden Russiagate files,” Patel wrote on X. “They were buried — literally.”
Among the documents, Patel said, was a classified annex to Special Counsel John Durham’s final report, which further discredited many of the claims used to justify the Russia investigation.
That annex, Patel claimed, contained proof that senior FBI officials had knowingly used false intelligence to obtain surveillance warrants against members of Trump’s campaign.
The discovery reportedly accelerated the Justice Department’s decision to bring the case against Comey.
The Allegations Against Comey
The indictment centers around Comey’s 2020 Senate testimony, during which he told lawmakers he was unaware of any internal problems with the Steele dossier and claimed he “did not authorize” anyone to leak information from the FBI to the media.
Prosecutors allege that both statements were false.
Court documents show that Comey not only received multiple internal warnings about the dossier’s lack of credibility but that he had personally approved at least one FBI official to serve as an anonymous source for several media outlets.
The indictment cites internal communications from 2016 showing that Comey had been briefed on the political origins of the Steele dossier — specifically, that it was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.
Despite that knowledge, prosecutors allege, Comey allowed the FBI to continue using the dossier to justify surveillance of Trump adviser Carter Page.
From Investigator to Defendant
For Comey, the legal battle marks a stunning reversal.
He was once the man leading investigations.
Now, he is the one being investigated.
It’s a fall that many conservatives view as poetic justice — the closing of a long and bitter chapter in American politics.
“This is accountability,” Bondi said. “For years, Americans watched people like Comey, Brennan, and Clapper lie under oath with no consequences. That era is over.”
The indictment of Comey also casts a long shadow over the Justice Department itself, forcing a new wave of scrutiny over how the FBI operated during the final months of the Obama administration.