President Donald Trump’s long-running feud with former FBI Director James Comey is possibly reaching its crescendo this week, as federal prosecutors face a deadline on Tuesday to seek an indictment stemming from Comey’s sworn testimony about the Russia investigation.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have reviewed allegations that Comey lied to Congress in 2020 when he denied authorizing media leaks about the Trump-Russia investigation. But the case has stalled internally, with career-line prosecutors warning newly installed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan that the evidence may fall short of establishing probable cause — let alone meeting the Department of Justice’s high bar for charging a public figure with false statements.
The window to bring charges is rapidly closing. Prosecutors must act before the five-year statute of limitations expires on Tuesday, making this a consequential decision point not only for the Justice Department, but for Trump’s second-term pledge to revisit past DOJ decisions involving his political enemies.
A new Trump appointee, an old DOJ flashpoint
Halligan, a former Trump personal lawyer, was sworn in this week after Trump removed U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert over what sources described as reluctance to move forward with indictments against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
While the dispute surrounding James’s investigation dominated the event surrounding Siebert’s, a lesser-known possible conflict may have created an even bigger drive for his firing. His father-in-law is Richard Cullen, a top Virginia GOP legal powerbroker who once served as U.S. attorney, state attorney general, and personal counsel to former Vice President Mike Pence and current Gov. Glenn Youngkin, according to a recent report from Cardinal News that emphasized the importance of the “genealogy” between the prominent Virginia legal family.
But perhaps even more notable is that Cullen is also the godfather of one of James Comey’s daughters, according to a 2017 Washington Post report.
Former federal prosecutor David Gelman told the Washington Examiner the familial ties between Siebert and Cullen, in addition to his father-in-law’s nexus to the Comeys, raise significant red flags that may amount to an “appearance” conflict.
“Even if it’s not a textbook conflict, the appearance of a conflict should have been enough for Siebert to recuse himself,” Gelman said. “There’s a reason he’s not there anymore.”
The accusation of an appearance conflict was also raised Thursday by prominent Trump ally Roger Stone, who posted to X that Siebert “should have recused himself from the beginning.”
“Fired Eastern District US attorney Eric Siebert’s father-in-law is the godfather to former FBI director James Comey’s daughter! No wonder Siebert produced a memo recommending no prosecution of Comey,” Stone added.
Gelman also pointed to Siebert’s bipartisan backing from Virginia’s Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine as further reason to doubt Siebert was ever fully aligned with Trump’s prosecutorial priorities.
“He got the blue slips from Kaine and Warner — that alone should’ve raised red flags,” Gelman said. “I was surprised Trump even nominated him in the first place.”
Halligan enters — and scrutiny builds
As U.S. attorney, Halligan now has full charging authority over the Comey case. Gelman said he expects Halligan to face resistance from DOJ holdovers in the office and warned that unless she digs into the evidence herself, she may be misled by career attorneys who don’t support Trump’s second-term agenda.
“You have to have people you can trust, and if you don’t know them, you can’t trust them,” Gelman said. “She should not rely on others. This is sink or swim.”
Though Halligan is new to DOJ leadership, Gelman said he would be “very surprised” if she wasn’t receiving behind-the-scenes help from top Trump legal figures, including Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“I’d be shocked if Todd Blanche isn’t helping,” Gelman said. “He’s the best attorney Trump has — book smart, street smart, always five moves ahead. He’s the backbone of this DOJ.”
Former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, Neama Rahmani, seconded Gelman’s theory, saying, “She was an insurance lawyer. Somebody has to be helping her because she has no idea what she is doing.”
Northern Virginia grand jury marks the key hurdle
Even if Halligan wants to charge Comey, success depends on whether a grand jury in Northern Virginia will indict — a steep challenge in the heavily Democratic region. Gelman said the partisan makeup of the jury pool could complicate any attempt to hold Comey accountable, no matter how strong the evidence.
“Northern Virginia is extremely liberal,” he said. “That’s the wall you’re up against.”
Still, Gelman said a determined prosecutor could push the case through quickly.
“You can indict a ham sandwich — it really is true,” he said. “When I was in charge of the grand jury unit, if I wanted something indicted, I could get it indicted.”
If the current grand jury declines to act, Halligan could theoretically present the case to a new panel, but time is short. Gelman said she could also consider transferring the case to another jurisdiction, though that would shift control to another U.S. attorney.
“If it were me, I’d refile it somewhere else,” Gelman said. “But that’s the bind she’s in. She’s just getting her footing, and now she’s in the deep end.”
In the event of a no-bill from a grand jury, Rahmani said another option, albeit rare, could be to go to a preliminary hearing, which the former prosecutor described as “a mini-trial before a judge.”
“But they could easily lose, a judge could find there’s no probable cause, which would be pretty embarrassing because that would be a public setback,” Rahmani said.
The 2020 testimony in question
At issue is Comey’s Sept. 30, 2020, testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which he stated under oath that he had not authorized leaks of information about the Clinton or Russia investigations. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has reportedly contradicted that account, and congressional investigators have long viewed Comey’s statement as perjurious.
During that hearing, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) pressed Comey on whether he had ever authorized leaks to the media about the FBI’s investigations into Trump or Hillary Clinton.
“I stand by the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017,” Comey told Cruz. Asked whether former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was “not telling the truth” when he claimed otherwise, Comey replied, “I’m not going to characterize Andy’s testimony, but mine is the same today.”
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 25, 2025
Investigators working under Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have prioritized unresolved questions about Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, viewing their roles in advancing the Trump-Russia collusion narrative by allegedly leaking information to the media as central to restoring public trust in the DOJ.
However, internal pushback at the Eastern District’s office remains another obstacle for Halligan. In an internal memo prepared for the newly appointed head prosecutor, career personnel reportedly advised against prosecution due to insufficient evidence to establish probable cause. The DOJ’s own guidelines require prosecutors to pursue charges only when they believe they can secure a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.
Rahmani said the race against the clock to bring charges against Comey is something that could have been avoided had the Trump administration prioritized investigating Comey in his first term in office more than eight years ago.
“The bottom line is, if you want to investigate Comey, you should have done so during your first administration, when, you know, the statute had it run if you thought there was a leak or something unlawful done,” Rahmani said.
Trump keeps up the pressure
Trump has repeatedly called for Comey’s prosecution, most recently demanding on Truth Social that “JUSTICE BE SERVED, NOW!!!” Earlier this year, the former president accused Comey of promoting a veiled death threat over an Instagram post from Comey that read “8647” — interpreted by some as code for “86 the 47th president.”
Trump also claimed Comey, along with former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, fabricated the Epstein files as part of a broader scheme to undermine him.
TRUMP DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM POSSIBLE COMEY INDICTMENT
In July, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Comey for testimony related to the Epstein grand jury materials. The administration later fired Comey’s daughter, a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York who had worked on aspects of the Epstein case.
Whether Comey will face charges remains uncertain, despite multiple media reports suggesting that prosecutors are pushing for an imminent indictment. But with a Tuesday deadline fast approaching, the DOJ is running out of time to decide.
