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Former FBI Director James Comey Indicted after Pressure from Trump; Trump Memorandum Targets 'Organized Political Violence.' Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired September 26, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: -- show in the '60s. Also available are Kirk and Spock's original "Star Trek" uniforms, Wonder Woman's costume, and the "I Dream of Jeannie" harem costume.
[06:00:10]
The bidding ends in four weeks. The Fonz jacket, that keeps going up in price. Heads up there.
All right. And finally, the Los Angeles Zoo is celebrating new additions to their family. A pair of newborn female chimpanzees. They're the first chimpanzees born at the zoo in more than a decade.
Zookeepers say both infants and their mothers are doing well. Congrats to them.
All right. Thanks so much for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Danny Freeman in New York. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump's retribution. James Comey indicted. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: And I'm innocent. So, let's have a trial.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The former FBI director vows to fight back as he faces criminal charges.
And mystery meeting. Why is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering hundreds of his top generals to gather in person next week?
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The radical left is causing this problem, not the right.
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CORNISH: President Trump ready to follow through on his threat to crack down on political violence. We'll talk about who's first on his list.
And Israel's prime minister about to address the U.N. after his plan to annex the West Bank hits a major roadblock.
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JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, ABC'S "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": We couldn't have done it without you, Mr. President. Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Jimmy Kimmel pokes the bear as investors warn Disney to prepare for a lawsuit.
It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here is a live look at New York City.
Good morning, everybody. It is Friday, September 26. I want to thank you for waking up with me. I'm Audie Cornish, and here's where we begin.
Former FBI Director James Comey, now under federal indictment after pressure from President Trump for the Department of Justice to go after his political enemies.
A grand jury indicted Comey on two counts, alleging that he lied to Congress back in 2020 and obstructed congressional proceedings.
A source tells CNN the charges related to an FBI leak investigation dealing with classified information that actually ended up in foreign newspapers. But James Comey says the case is proof of political payback.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMEY: We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn't either. Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant. And she's right. But I'm not afraid. And I hope you're not, either. And I'm innocent. So, let's have a trial, and keep the faith.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: President Trump cheered on the indictment from the White House, posting, quote, "JUSTICE IN AMERICA!" and calling Comey "one of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to."
He says the charges are the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes.
Joining me now to talk more about this, Elliot Williams, our legal analyst, also a former federal prosecutor. Welcome. Happy Friday --
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Happy Friday.
CORNISH: -- Elliot. OK. So, let's talk about this. The heart of this is this leak investigation; documents, memos when Comey was actually no longer FBI director. Do I have that right?
WILLIAMS: I believe so. Now, at its core is the question of did Comey authorize a leak? Right? And statements he made thereof to Congress in congressional testimony.
CORNISH: So, this is about lying to Congress?
WILLIAMS: Lying to Congress.
CORNISH: OK.
WILLIAMS: Ultimately, it's about lying to Congress. And he's actually charged with obstruction of a congressional proceeding through dishonesty or, you know, or untruth.
Now, the biggest thing in any case -- whether it's perjury, obstruction -- that involves statements, is that prosecutors will have to prove that the individual not only made a statement, but knew it was false and knowingly did so, or did so in such reckless disregard of the truth that -- that they ought to be held accountable for it.
Now, that's actually quite hard often, because usually you need a document saying, I know I'm lying.
CORNISH: Right.
WILLIAMS: Or you're telling someone else that he knows he's lying. Now it can be done. But these are challenging cases to bring, quite often.
CORNISH: Can I play something for you --
WILLIAMS: Yes.
CORNISH: -- that we dug up from the archives? Anderson Cooper actually asked him about this during a town hall. This was in 2018, though. And I want to play some of the exchange to get Comey's explanation.
WILLIAMS: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMEY: I didn't leak memos. I asked a friend to communicate the substance of one unclassified matter.
COOPER: Whether you --
COMEY: Can I finish for a second?
COOPER: Sure. OK.
COMEY: One unclassified memo to the media. And I was really important. I was a private citizen. I was not an FBI employee at that time.
COOPER: But it was an internal document. It was a document you had written while you were FBI director. That -- that is a leak. I mean, if you tell somebody, don't give them the document, but tell them what's in the document, that's still a leak. No?
COMEY: Well, not to get tangled up in it, I think of a leak is an unauthorized disclosure of classified information.
COOPER: Really? That's it? That's a leak?
[06:05:02]
COMEY: That's how I thought about it as FBI director. We investigated leaks. Unauthorized disclosures.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: That's a good example of two things. One, how he describes what happened.
WILLIAMS: Right.
CORNISH: And two, he's a lawyer. He has been the top lawyer. This man is ready.
WILLIAMS: Yes. He's ready. And he knows what he's talking about.
There's a few things. The first part of it is the "I" -- It depends on what the definition of "is" is, which is the Clintonian parsing words. And was it a leak or an unauthorized disclosure from a private citizen, versus the FBI director? That's a fair question, too. No. 1.
No. 2 is, did Andrew McCabe, the other person at issue here, introduce the conversation? And did Jim Comey just respond to it by saying, yes, it is.
You can make an argument that that might not qualify as a, quote, "leak."
Regardless of whether this sounds like lawyerly hairsplitting --
CORNISH: It does.
WILLIAMS: -- this is all the kind of stuff that calls reasonable doubt into question at trial.
Jurors need to be absolutely certain that this individual knew what he was doing in making a statement at the time. And this legal gray area, or this -- this statement or linguistic gray area is the kind of stuff that -- that sinks perjury or obstruction charges all the time.
CORNISH: The thing is, everyone is talking about this. because the charges are coming after Trump --
WILLIAMS: Yes.
CORNISH: -- appeared to step up his public pressure on the Justice Department on Pam Bondi in a Truth Social post, which I want to note has since been deleted.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
CORNISH: OK. Which is usually a red flag. But in that post, he said, "What about Comey? Adam "Shiffy" (ph) Schiff, Leticia [SIC]?? They're all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done," and ended the post saying justice must be done.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
CORNISH: He's been also talking publicly about these people being guilty. Like, he's talking very publicly about this. What do you make of this turn of events?
WILLIAMS: The president just carried out and taught a master class in how to get a prosecution thrown out for either malicious prosecution or selective prosecution.
You have the president of the United States, even if it's a deleted post, putting in writing a defendant's name that he hopes to have investigated and is directing, at least casually, the attorney general to do so. No. 1.
No. 2, Jim Comey can also go into court now and list every single statement the president has made about him over the last five years, saying, I was singled out personally.
And because of the clarity of the statements, even to folks who might make the argument that, well, Donald Trump was prosecuted before, and other people said other things about him on the campaign trail --
CORNISH: Yes. Which they will.
WILLIAMS: -- you simply do not have the quantum of evidence from the president of the United States himself, weighing in on the specifics of the litigation.
This is pretty aggressive in a way that -- for a type of charge, you don't see that often. It doesn't win that often, which is selective prosecution.
So, I do think Comey almost certainly already has that motion filed, ready to go to get this thing tossed out. And it's not a total loser.
CORNISH: OK. Stick around, because we're going to lawyer up later.
WILLIAMS: Let's do it.
CORNISH: Because there's other stories you might have missed in the legal world. So, Elliot will be here with that.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, the White House doesn't want a government shutdown. So, they're threatening Congress. Will that work? I'm going to ask a Democratic congressman, Johnny Olszewski.
Plus, cracking down on organized political violence. What does the president mean by that? Well, the group chat has some thoughts. We're going to have them next. And one year since Hurricane Helene, Western North Carolina is still
rebuilding.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're taking what Mother Nature left us, and we're going to turn it into the new Chimney Rock that's going to be just a wonderful place.
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CORNISH: James Comey isn't the only political enemy of President Trump put on notice. Trump has signed a presidential memorandum to help identify people he believes stir up political violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to do a pretty big number on those people.
They're bad, and we're going to find out. And if they are funding these things, they're going to have some problems. Because they're agitators, and they're anarchists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The president blames the radical left for the killing of Charlie Kirk. He accuses, quote, "wealthy people" of funding political violence.
"The New York Times" reports one of those targets is a group funded by billionaire Democratic donor George Soros. While Attorney General Pam Bondi stopped short of confirming that, she said, quote, "Everything is on the table."
So, here to talk about it, our group chat: Noel King, co-host and editorial director of "Today, Explained"; Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of "The Daily Signal"; and Lulu Garcia-Navarro, "New York Times" journalist and podcast host.
All right. So, I want to start with -- with a comment from Stephen Miller, which just gives us a tiny bit more detail. So -- so bear with me. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN MILLER, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: What we have seen, if you look at whether it be going back to the riots that started with Black Lives Matter and all the way through to the Antifa riots, the attacks on ICE officers, the doxing campaigns, and now the political assassinations. These are not lone isolated events.
This is part of an organized campaign of radical left terrorism. It is terrorism on our soil. Because of this executive order, Kash and Pam are going to have the tools they need, working with Scott, to take these organizations apart piece by piece.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Can I start with you, Noel?
NOEL KING, CO-HOST/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, "TODAY, EXPLAINED" PODCAST": Sure.
CORNISH: Piece by piece.
KING: No one knows who Antifa is. I mean, this is actually the problem.
CORNISH: Black Lives Matter, there is like, for instance, I think, a foundation.
KING: Yes.
CORNISH: There's an organization. I mean, they were struggling financially, so --
KING: Absolutely.
CORNISH: -- I don't know what's going to happen. But they -- they were naming names here of the kinds of groups they wanted to go after.
KING: And then you've got to prove that they're terrorists. And that's -- I just don't think that's going to be an easy thing to do.
[06:15:02]
I mean, I think it's really interesting that the Trump administration is targeting billionaires like George Soros, Reid Hoffman. Like, this is -- this is very unusual for America.
CORNISH: But why? I mean, Soros does fund a lot of organizations.
KING: Billionaires have the best lawyers. They're the most insulated from the justice system. This is America. I'm sorry. Like, this is a really weird moment. These are typically the people that our justice system leaves alone.
And the president of the United States saying, we're going to go after some of the people in this country who have the most money.
Now, if I were on the right, what I would be concerned about always is the next time the shoe is on the other foot. Right?
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I was about to say. Why not, then, when a Democratic president comes on, go after Tim Dunn, Farris Wilks, two Texas billionaires who do massive funding on the right in Texas and beyond? The Koch brothers and their network.
I mean, this is part of the issue. We can have a -- I think, a good- faith debate about money in politics. And boy, I have thoughts on that.
But is that what this is about? Or is this about actually going after the perceived enemies of this administration and trying to, basically, gut what our civil society groups --
CORNISH: I mean, what they're saying, though --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: -- in the United States --
CORNISH: -- is that this is in a direct relation to the -- the Charlie Kirk assassination. This is an ongoing conversation on the right about the constellation or atmosphere on the left that they think contributes to this. Am I misreading that?
ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": I think when you see the writing on the bullets in the Charlie Kirk assassination and the attack on -- on the ICE facility this week, there are legitimate questions that are being raised or why are these shooters putting these messages, these cryptic messages sometimes. And what do they mean exactly?
So, not only do you have the president making this move from the White House, but you also have Congressman Chip Roy in the U.S. Congress who wants to form a select committee to do an investigation.
So, I'm all for investigating and trying to get to the bottom of this. To your point about --
CORNISH: What does he want that investigation to do, the congressional one?
BLUEY: Chip Roy, he wants to form a select committee to look into what he calls anti-American activities that are happening on our own soil.
KING: Anti-American activities?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Interesting. The anti-Americans. That -- that -- does that not bring back happy memories of the past?
BLUEY: You -- you brought up George Soros earlier. And I think the reason that Trump is looking at Soros is you -- you -- he has funded a lot of prosecutorial races in this country for individuals who have what the right would say gone easy on criminals.
KING: He's an -- he's an American billionaire. That is his right. We made this decision. Citizens United. We said money belongs in politics. George Soros is playing the same game as every other billionaire in America.
CORNISH: OK, you guys, we're going to leave it here. Because honestly, I think we're going to be talking about this more.
But after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, a mystery meeting. The top brass summoned to Quantico. Now, the White House is downplaying it.
Plus, it's the most Texan thing you'll see all day. The special talent this officer told the suspect his horse had that sent him running.
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[06:22:15]
CORNISH: It's 20 minutes past the hour, and here is your morning roundup.
The man at the center of a manhunt, accused of killing his three young daughters. He's now confirmed dead. DNA results from human remains found last week on a mountainside in the Washington Cascades belong to Travis Decker.
Police have been looking for him since June after he allegedly suffocated his daughters and abandoned them in the wilderness.
Today marks one year since Hurricane Helene devastated much of North Carolina's Western region. Bouncing back, still a struggle.
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MAYOR PETER O'LEARY, CHIMNEY ROCK VILLAGE, NORTH CAROLINA: We're not 100 percent complete yet. We haven't totally fixed everything. But we're hard at work doing that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: North Carolina Governor Josh Stein wants another $13.5 billion in federal aid to continue that recovery.
And everything is bigger in Texas, including their drug-detecting animals.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. I have a narcotic smelling horse right here.
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CORNISH: OK, this horse in Lubbock can't actually sniff out drugs, but this suspect sure believed that he could, so he ran. And that led to a high-gallop chase.
The suspect was eventually arrested.
Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump fulfilling his promise to prosecute his enemies, starting with Jim Comey. But will more indictments follow?
Plus, we lawyer up to talk about legal stories you might have missed this week. Like the Missouri woman convicted for trying to steal Graceland.
And good morning, Las Vegas. Cool shot of The Sphere.
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[06:28:37]
CORNISH: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING. It's half past the hour. Here's what's happening right now.
Former FBI Director James Comey is speaking out as he now faces two federal criminal charges. He was indicted Thursday for lying to Congress and obstruction. But in a video statement, Comey says he never broke the law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMEY: I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I'm innocent. So, let's have a trial, and keep the faith.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Comey is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on October 9.
And new tariffs are coming next week. President Trump is imposing a 100 percent levy on pharmaceutical imports unless the drug maker is building a manufacturing plant in the U.S.
He also announced a 25 percent tariff on trucks and 30 percent on upholstered furniture and 50 percent tariff on cabinets and bathroom vanities. It all goes into effect October 1.
This morning, Israel's prime minister will address the U.N. It comes as dozens of U.N. countries recognize Palestinian statehood, something Netanyahu plans to denounce in his speech today.
Just yesterday, President Trump also delivering a political blow, saying he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.
And President Donald Trump and his allies are taking a victory lap over the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey. And they could just be getting started.
After the indictment, Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, declared no one is above the law.
