James Comey

James Comey

James Brien Comey Jr. is an American lawyer who was the 7th director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2013 until his dismissal in May 2017. Comey was responsible for overseeing the FBI’s investigation of the Hillary Clinton email controversy. His role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was highly controversial. Some analysts claim his decisions might have cost her the presidency.

About James Comey in brief

Summary James ComeyJames Brien Comey Jr. is an American lawyer who was the 7th director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2013 until his dismissal in May 2017. Comey was responsible for overseeing the FBI’s investigation of the Hillary Clinton email controversy. His role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was highly controversial. Some analysts and some Clinton supporters claim his decisions might have cost her the presidency, particularly his decision to reopen the investigation into Clinton’s emails less than two weeks before the election. Comey had been a registered Republican for most of his adult life; in 2016, he described himself as unaffiliated. In December 2019, Horowitz released a report finding no political bias against Trump by Comey or other FBI officials. Comey graduated with honors from the College of William and Mary in 1982, majoring in chemistry and religion. In his senior thesis Comey analyzed the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and the televangelist Jerry Falwell, emphasizing their common belief in public action. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 1985. After law school, Comey was a law clerk for United States district judge John M. Walker Jr. in Manhattan. In 2010, he became general counsel at Bridgewater Associates, based in Westport, Connecticut. In early 2013, he left Bridgewater to become a senior research scholar and Hertog fellow on national security law at Columbia Law School. He served on the board of directors of HSBC Holdings until July 2013.

In September 2013, President Barack Obama appointed Comey to the position of Director of the FBI. Comey is of Irish heritage. His grandfather, William J. Comey, was an officer and later commissioner of the Yonkers Police Department. His father worked in corporate real estate and his mother was a computer consultant and homemaker. He attended Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale. In 1977 he and his brother were victims of a home invasion by a criminal called \”The Ramsey Rapist\”. He was also the lead prosecutor in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. In November 2002, he led the prosecution of three men involved in one of the largest identity fraud cases in American history. He was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General on December 11, 2003, which resulted in thousands of people collectively losing over 3million USD over his time. In August 2005, Comey left the U. S. Department of Justice and became a senior vice president of Lockheed Martin as general counsel while based in Bethesda, Maryland. He worked from 1987 to 1993 as an associate for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in their New York office. In 1996, Comey acted as deputy special counsel to the Senate Whitewater Committee in the case concerning Khobar Arabia. He also served as adjunct professor of law at University of Richmond School of Law. He is the son of Joan Marie Comey and J.Brien Comey, a real estate magnate from Yonkers, New York. He has a son, James Brien, and a daughter, J.C. Comey.