James Brien Comey Jr. is an accomplished American lawyer, who is best known for his work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice. Born on December 14, 1960, Comey has led a distinguished career in law and public service, including serving as the seventh Director of the FBI from 2013 until his dismissal in 2017.
Comey's career in law enforcement began after he graduated from the University of Chicago Law School. He joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, where he worked on several high-profile cases, including the organized crime case of the United States v. John Gambino, et al. He later became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he handled the investigation of the 1996 terrorist attack on the U.S. military’s Khobar Towers in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
In addition to his work in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Comey has held several prominent positions in the federal government. He served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from January 2002 to December 2003, and subsequently as the Deputy Attorney General of the United States from December 2003 to August 2005. During his tenure as Deputy Attorney General, Comey appointed Patrick Fitzgerald to be the Special Counsel to head the grand jury investigation into the Plame affair. After leaving the Department of Justice in 2005, Comey became general counsel and senior vice president of Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda, Maryland. He later served as general counsel at Bridgewater Associates, based in Westport, Connecticut, and as a Senior Research Scholar and Hertog Fellow on National Security Law at Columbia Law School. In 2013, Comey was appointed Director of the FBI by President Barack Obama, where he served until his dismissal by President Donald Trump in May 2017.
Comey's tenure as FBI Director was marked by controversy, particularly with regard to his public communications and his role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. His decisions during the election, including his public statements about the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server, were highly criticized and viewed by some as having possibly influenced the outcome of the election. After his dismissal, Comey released an internal FBI memo he had written after a private meeting with President Trump, which detailed Trump's request for him to end the FBI's investigation into Michael Flynn, the former National Security Advisor. This memo, along with Comey's subsequent Congressional testimony, became part of a widening investigation by Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Since his dismissal as FBI Director, Comey has continued to be involved in public service and education. He served as a Lecturer in Law, a Senior Research Scholar, and Hertog Fellow in National Security Law at Columbia Law School, and held the King Lecture Chair in Public Policy at Howard University for 2017-18. He also served as a Distinguished Lecturer in Public Policy at William and Mary for 2018-2020. In September 2020, Comey's first book, "A Higher Loyalty," was made into a Showtime limited series, "The Comey Rule."