{"id":165797,"date":"2025-09-26T10:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-two-charges-with-reports-that-he-will-surrender-on-friday-us-politics-live-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T10:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:27:12","slug":"ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-two-charges-with-reports-that-he-will-surrender-on-friday-us-politics-live-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ex-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-on-two-charges-with-reports-that-he-will-surrender-on-friday-us-politics-live-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-FBI director James Comey indicted on two charges with reports that he will surrender on Friday – US politics live – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comey is expected to surrender and have his initial appearance in federal district court today
The White House is telling federal agencies to prepare large-scale firings of workers if the government shuts down<\/a> next week in a partisan fight over spending plans \u2013 prompting the Democrats to accuse Donald Trump<\/a> of intimidation tactics.<\/strong>
In a memo released on Wednesday night, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said agencies should consider a reduction in force for federal programs whose funding would lapse next week, is not otherwise funded and is \u201cnot consistent with the president\u2019s priorities\u201d.
That would be a much more aggressive step than in previous shutdowns, when federal workers not deemed essential were furloughed but returned to their jobs once the US Congress<\/a> approved a new financial plan.
A mass firing would eliminate employees positions, which would trigger yet another massive upheaval in a federal workforce that has already faced major rounds of cuts this year, leading with the dramatic intervention by Elon Musk\u2019s<\/a> \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d (Doge<\/a>) early in the second Trump administration<\/a>.
When asked by reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon about the possibility of a government shutdown, Trump said: \u201cCould be, yeah, because the Democrats<\/a> are crazed. They don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing.\u201d
Asked whether he would agree to a request from Democrats for an extension of subsidies for the costs of healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, on which millions of Americans depend for health insurance \u2013 which has become the sticking point<\/a> in negotiations over the government funding bill \u2013 Trump simply repeated his false claim that Democrats are insisting on funding \u201cto give the money to illegal aliens\u201d.
Donald Trump<\/a> issued a presidential memorandum on Thursday aimed at reining in what he has called a radical leftwing domestic \u201cterror network\u201d but which seemed likely to meet fierce legal pushback from critics depicting it as a licence for a broad crackdown on his political opponents.<\/strong>
Prompted by journalists, Trump suggested that George Soros, the billionaire Hungarian-born philanthropist who funds the Open Society Foundations, could be in his sights. He also identified Reid Hoffman, a billionaire venture capitalist, adding: \u201cI hear about him. Maybe it could be him. It could be a lot of people.\u201d
Earlier, the Open Society Foundations had hit back<\/a> at reports that the justice department was planning to target the group and criticized the Trump administration for \u201cpolitically motivated attacks on civil society\u201d.
Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement: \u201cAfter one of the most harrowing weeks for our first amendment rights, the president is invoking political violence, which we all condemn, as an excuse to target non-profits and activists with the false and stigmatizing label of \u2018domestic terrorism\u2019. This is a shameful and dangerous move.\u201d
At a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, the memorandum was presented as aimed at \u201cestablishing a comprehensive strategy to investigate, disrupt and dismantle all stages of organized political violence and domestic terrorism\u201d.
It was said to be part of an administration-wide response that would include the FBI\u2019s joint terrorism taskforces, the Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury.
Donald Trump<\/a> on Thursday announced a new round of punishing tariffs<\/a>, saying the United States will impose a 100% tariffs on imported branded drugs, 25% tariff on imports of all heavy-duty trucks and 50% tariffs on kitchen cabinets.<\/strong>
The US president also said he would start charging a 50% tariff on bathroom vanities and a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture next week, with all the new duties to take effect from 1 October.
Drug companies warned earlier this year<\/a> that Americans would suffer the most if Trump decided to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
In 2024, the US imported nearly $233bn in pharmaceutical and medicinal products, according to the Census Bureau. The prospect of prices doubling for some medicines could send shock waves to voters as healthcare expenses, as well as the costs of Medicare and Medicaid, potentially increase.
Pascal Chan, vice-president for strategic policy and supply chains at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, warned that the tariffs could harm Americans\u2019 health with \u201cimmediate price hikes, strained insurance systems, hospital shortages, and the real risk of patients rationing or foregoing essential medicines\u201d.
Hello and welcome to the US politics<\/a> live blog. I\u2019m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with the news that James Comey, the former FBI director and one of Donald Trump\u2019s most frequent targets, was indicted on Thursday on one count of making a false statement to Congress and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding<\/strong>, the latest move in the president\u2019s retribution campaign against his political adversaries.
The indictment, filed in federal district court in Alexandria, Virginia, shows Comey\u2019s charges centred on whether he lied and misled lawmakers during testimony in September 2020 about the Russia investigation.
Comey was expected to surrender and have his initial appearance in federal district court on Friday morning, according to a person familiar with the matter. Comey is expected to be represented by Patrick Fitzgerald, a former US attorney for the northern district of Illinois.
While the precise details were not clear in the sparse, two-page indictment, it appeared to reference Comey\u2019s testimony that he had never authorized someone at the FBI to leak to the news media about the Trump or Hillary Clinton<\/a> investigations \u2013 a claim prosecutors alleged was false.
\u201cNo one is above the law. Today\u2019s indictment reflects this Department of Justice\u2019s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people,\u201d Pam Bondi<\/a>, the US attorney general, said in a statement<\/a> on Thursday.
The indictment followed Trump\u2019s instruction to Bondi to \u201cmove now\u201d to prosecute Comey and other officials he considers political foes, in an impatient and extraordinarily direct social media post trampling on the justice department\u2019s tradition of independence.
It also came less than a week after Lindsey Halligan was installed as the top federal prosecutor in the eastern district of Virginia, after Trump fired her predecessor, Erik Siebert, after he declined to bring charges against Comey over concerns there was insufficient evidence.
Halligan, most recently a White House aide and former Trump lawyer who has no prosecutorial experience, was also presented with a memo earlier this week laying out why charges should not be brought. But the justice department still pushed it through, people familiar with the matter said.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the US senate intelligence committee, said:
<\/path><\/svg>Donald Trump has made clear that he intends to turn our justice system into a weapon for punishing and silencing his critics.
Responding to the indictment, hours after it was filed, Comey said in a video statement posted on Instagram that he was innocent and welcomed a trial.
\u201cMy family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn\u2019t imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn\u2019t either,\u201d Comey said.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
Authorities said on Thursday that the words of the suspect in the shooting<\/a> on Wednesday at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice<\/a>) detention facility in Texas<\/a> were \u201cdefinitively anti-Ice\u201d<\/strong> but said that they did not find evidence that the suspect was a member of \u201cany specific group or entity, nor did he mention any specific government agency other than Ice\u201d.
The Open Society Foundations (OSF), the major philanthropic group funded by George Soros, criticized the Trump administration for \u201cpolitically motivated attacks on civil society\u201d<\/strong> after a report<\/a> that the justice department had instructed federal prosecutors to come up with plans to investigate the charity.
Donald Trump<\/a> issued a presidential memorandum on Thursday aimed at reining in what he has called a radical leftwing domestic \u201cterror network\u201d<\/strong> but which seemed likely to meet fierce legal pushback from critics depicting it as a licence for a broad crackdown on his political opponents.
Donald Trump<\/a> on Thursday announced a new round of punishing tariffs<\/a>, saying the United States will impose a 100% tariffs on imported branded drugs, 25% tariff on imports of all heavy-duty trucks and 50% tariffs on kitchen cabinets.<\/strong> The US president also said he would start charging a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture next week.
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday outlining the terms of a deal to transfer TikTok to a US owner. Trump said he and China\u2019s president Xi Jinping<\/a> had come to an agreement to allow TikTok to continue operating in the US, separating the social media platform from its Chinese owner ByteDance.<\/strong> Trump said the deal complies with a law that would have forced the shutdown of the app for American users had it not been divested and sold to a US owner.
A group of Disney<\/a> investors is asking the company to turn over documents related to the company\u2019s decision to temporarily suspend<\/a> Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>\u2019s late-night show<\/strong>, amid charges the media company may have been \u201ccomplicit in succumbing\u201d to media censorship.
An impromptu statue<\/a> of Donald Trump<\/a> and Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> holding hands was unceremoniously removed from the National Mall in Washington<\/strong> just a day after a group of anonymous artists erected it there.<\/p>\n

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Comey is expected to surrender and have his initial appearance in federal district court todayThe White House is telling federal agencies to prepare large-scale firings of workers if the government shuts down next week in a partisan fight over spending plans \u2013 prompting the Democrats to accuse Donald Trump of intimidation tactics.In a memo released […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":165798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}