James Comey walked into federal court in Alexandria, Virginia this morning to face charges that read like a bureaucratic footnote: making false statements and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The alleged crime? Lying in 2020 Senate testimony about whether he authorized an FBI official to leak details about an investigation involving Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election. He pleaded not guilty. His trial is set for January 5, 2026—one day before the anniversary of the Capitol attack.
Strip away the legal jargon and you’re looking at something else entirely. A president who spent years screaming about a “witch hunt” is now conducting one. The former FBI director who opened an investigation into Trump’s Russia connections is being marched through the justice system on orders from the man he investigated. The Department of Justice—an institution built on 250 years of independence from political interference—has become the president’s personal law firm.
The prosecution tells you everything you need to know about its legitimacy. Career prosecutors in the DOJ refused to bring the case. The FBI balked at making the arrest. So the administration parachuted in Kathleen Halligan, a former Trump White House lawyer, to get it done. She had to import two prosecutors from a different office to make it happen. Even then, the grand jury vote was reportedly narrow. This isn’t justice. It’s theater with consequences.
What makes this particularly insidious is what the case deliberately avoids. The charges focus on a side detail about media leaks—not whether the Trump-Russia investigation was legitimate. And it was legitimate. Eight years of reporting has proven that Russia helped Trump win in 2016. But by prosecuting Comey for allegedly lying about authorizing a leak about Hillary Clinton, they sidestep the central question: was Trump compromised by a foreign adversary? The case transforms an investigation into foreign interference into a procedural squabble about media relations.
This is how authoritarian governments work. They don’t need to disprove the allegations against them. They just need to destroy the people who made them. Putin does this. Xi Jinping does this. Leaders in failing democracies around the world do this. Now America does this.
The pattern extends beyond Comey. Trump has announced investigations into the Soros family for funding liberal causes. His administration is pushing legislation that would bring unprecedented digital surveillance to anyone deemed a “domestic terrorist”—a category elastic enough to include anyone who opposes the government’s agenda. Like China’s social credit system, Americans could find themselves restricted from travel, commerce, or basic civil participation based on their political views. The machinery of a surveillance state is being assembled in plain sight.
What stands between America and complete democratic collapse? Three things. The military, which has pushed back against Trump’s most autocratic impulses. The judiciary, which must now serve as the constitutional firewall against executive overreach. And the American people themselves, who will either find their voice in the streets or watch their democracy evaporate while they scroll through social media.
The scene outside that Virginia courthouse looked ordinary—reporters waiting, cars passing, people milling about. That’s always what the death of democracy looks like up close. Not dramatic. Just another day, another arraignment, another norm shattered. The extraordinary becomes routine. The unthinkable becomes precedent.
James Comey faces up to five years in prison if convicted. But America faces something far more severe: the transformation from a nation of laws into a nation of vendettas, where the justice system exists to punish enemies rather than uphold principles. That’s not a legal problem. That’s a constitutional crisis dressed in courtroom procedure.
The date speaks volumes. January 5, 2026—the day before the anniversary of an attempted coup. Whether intentional or coincidental, it frames the trial in the shadow of January 6. A reminder that the assault on American democracy didn’t end when the rioters left the Capitol. It’s continuing, legally sanctioned, inside federal courthouses across the country.
RetryThank you
, , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.
