The FBI is considering carrying out a “showy” arrest and perp walk of the agency’s now-indicted ex-Director James Comey, and has suspended an agent who refused to participate in the plan, three sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Comey was charged last week with lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding, an unprecedented move that came after President Trump publicly pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into his longtime adversary. A grand jury voted to indict him on Sept. 25 and hours later, Comey was issued a summons directing him to appear in federal court in northern Virginia for an Oct. 9 arraignment. His lawyers agreed to bring him to his arraignment, two sources said.
But on the same day as his indictment, FBI leadership discussed hauling Comey in instead of waiting for the ex-FBI chief to report to court on his own, a source knowledgeable about the conversions told CBS News.
The source told CBS News that leadership asked for “large, beefy” agents to conduct an arrest of Comey “in full kit,” including Kevlar vests and exterior wear emblazoned with the FBI logo. It was suggested that Chris Ray, a supervisory special agent in the violent crimes division of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, would be able to put together the kinds of agents who fit the bill, the source said.
Ray refused to participate in this plan, believing it would be inappropriate and highly unusual for a white-collar defendant like Comey, according to the source. He was then suspended for insubordination.
The FBI is now actively working to put together a team to arrest Comey between now and his court appearance on Thursday, but other FBI supervisors have also refused to cooperate, said a source knowledgeable about the conversions and a law enforcement source familiar with the situation. The expectation is that the FBI will eventually find somebody.
CBS News has reached out to the FBI for comment. Comey’s lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, declined to comment to CBS News.
Reuters was first to report that an FBI agent was sidelined for refusing to help with a perp walk.
Law enforcement has long opted to carry out public perp walks for some defendants. The tactic is controversial, with critics arguing it undermines defendants’ presumption of innocence. When Comey was the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan during George W. Bush’s administration, the New York Civil Liberties Union penned a letter urging him to end the practice, saying it “seems calculated simply to cause public humiliation and embarrassment of the accused.”
Comey’s indictment marked an escalation in the almost decade-long feud between Mr. Trump and the FBI director he fired in the opening months of his first term. Mr. Trump has castigated Comey over the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and Comey has called Mr. Trump “morally unfit to be president.”
The charges accuse Comey of lying during a Senate hearing five years ago by falsely stating that he hadn’t authorized anybody at the FBI to serve as an anonymous source in media reports about investigations into Hillary Clinton. The indictment does not make clear who he allegedly authorized to be an anonymous source, or what the leak entailed.
Comey has denied wrongdoing.
The charges followed days of upheaval in the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Comey was indicted. The lead prosecutor in that office, Erik Siebert, resigned from the job two weeks ago, and Mr. Trump replaced him with his former personal lawyer, Lindsey Halligan. Less than a week later, Halligan asked a grand jury to indict Comey.
Some staff in the office had circulated a memo that argued charges shouldn’t be brought against Comey, a Justice Department source familiar with the matter told CBS News last week.
The Justice Department has also fired two high-level prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia in the last two weeks, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
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