Ben Shapiro on James Comey indictment: “It appears ... that this isn't a particularly well-predicated indictment, that the indictment itself is quite weak, and that it's unlikely to survive in court”
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From the September 26, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show
BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): As the report, the Durham report asserts, one of the sources of the leak was James Baker, but the time of the leak was the FBI's general counsel and a close adviser to Comey. Baker explained to investigators he had been under the belief that he was ultimately instructed and authorized to provide information to the Times by FBI Director James Comey. Baker does not claim that Comey gave him a direct order. Rather, he indicated that the FBI chief of staff, James Rybicki, instructed him to disclose the information to The New York Times, and Baker understood that Rybicki was conveying that instruction and authorization from Comey. Beyond that, most of the remaining pertinent information about the investigation was classified. Apparently, Durham closed the probe with the recommendation of no prosecution of Baker or anyone else for this leak.
Number one, the FBI hierarchy actually did have the authority to declassify, so they could leak legally. Two, Baker's belief he was acting with authority was reasonable. C, it would have been impossible to prove criminal intent because if you thought he was acting with authority and this this was being declassified by the upper levels of the FBI, he didn't commit a crime. And D, there was no harm done to national security.
Well, how does this bring up Comey himself? On September 30, 2020, appearing before the Senate Judiciary committee, Comey reaffirmed prior testimony from 2017 saying he had never authorized anyone at the FBI to leak information to the press pertaining to the investigations of either possible collusion between Trump and Russia or Hillary Clinton's use of an unauthorized email system.
So, basically, the case here is that he says he did not authorize a lower down at the FBI to leak the information. Even if he had authorized that leak, it would not have been illegal. So the cover up here would be criminal, but there would have been no underlying crime is sort of the issue here.
Now McCarthy says that an indictment on this would be absurd, which is why Trump's own former nominees, US attorney for Eastern District Eastern of Virginia, declined to bring the case. And the president fired him over that. So apparently, Lindsey Halligan has decided to do the thing that Trump wanted her to do. And so what it appears from all sort of the public information is that this isn't a particularly well-predicated indictment, that the indictment itself is quite weak, and that it's unlikely to survive in court.
Now, again, many of the things that Comey has been talked about for possibility of indictment are sort of immoral and ethics much worse than this, but that's not what he's being indicted for.