Former FBI Director James Comey posts video after indictment: 'I am innocent'
In a video posted following his two-count indictment by a federal grand jury, former FBI Director James Comey says he is innocent.
"My heart is broken for the Department of Justice. I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I am innocent, so let's have a trial, and keep the faith," Comey said in the brief video posted to his Instagram account.
It is not clear when the video was recorded.
"My family and I have known for years that there are costs for standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees and you shouldn't either," Comey said in the video.
"Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant and she is right," Comey said, referring to a statement his daughter, Maurene Comey, made in a farewell email to her colleagues after being fired from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York this summer. "But I am not afraid, and I hope you are not either. I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does."
Comey was indicted on charges of making a false statement and obstruction related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020.
The indictment came just days after President Donald Trump issued a public demand for his Justice Department to act "now" to bring prosecutions against Comey and other political foes.
Following his indictment, Comey's son-in-law Troy Edwards Jr. resigned his post as a national security prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, according to an email obtained by ABC News.
"To uphold my oath to the Constitution and country, I hereby resign as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in the Department of Justice effective immediately," Edwards wrote.
