STORY: The U.S. Justice Department filed criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday (September 25), in a dramatic escalation of President Donald Trump's retribution campaign against his political enemies.

If convicted, Comey could face up to five years in prison. He faces charges of making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation.

Comey, in a video posted on Instagram, said: "My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I'm innocent. So, let's have a trial and keep the faith."

His attorney, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, said in a statement: “Jim Comey denies the charges filed today in their entirety. We look forward to vindicating him in the courtroom."

Trump has threatened to imprison his political rivals since he first ran for president in 2015, but Thursday's indictment marks the first time his administration has succeeded in securing a grand jury indictment against one of them. Trump's Justice Department is also investigating other antagonists including New York Attorney General Letitia James and John Bolton, who served as a national security official in Trump's first term as president.

The charges breach decades-long norms that have sought to insulate U.S. law enforcement from political pressures. The federal prosecutor in Virginia who had been tasked with pursuing the case resigned last week after drawing Trump's wrath for expressing doubts about the case, and others in the office have privately said the evidence does not merit criminal charges, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Trump, who has pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey and other critics, celebrated the news. "JUSTICE IN AMERICA!" he wrote on social media. "He has been so bad for our Country, for so long."

Trump fired Comey in 2017, early in his first term in office. He has since regularly assailed Comey's handling of the FBI investigation that detailed contacts between Russians and Trump's 2016 campaign.

Since Trump returned to office last January, his Justice Department has been examining Comey's 2020 testimony when he addressed Republican criticisms of the Russia investigation and denied that he had authorized disclosures of sensitive information to the news media.

The indictment alleges that Comey misled Congress by claiming he had not authorized anyone else to be an anonymous source in news reporting about an FBI investigation.

Trump's administration has carried out a sweeping campaign to remake the Justice Department, which the president alleges was used as a political weapon when he left office in 2021. Trump faced federal charges of mishandling classified documents and trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Both cases have been dropped.

"Donald Trump has ordered the criminal prosecutions of political targets, and the Department of Justice is corruptly obeying," said Norm Eisen, a prominent former government ethics official under Democratic President Barack Obama and currently a fellow at the Brookings Institution. "This indictment has all the hallmarks of a vindictive and meritless prosecution."

The effort to target Comey had been viewed with skepticism in the Eastern District of Virginia, the U.S. attorney's office handling the case.

After the district's top federal prosecutor, Erik Siebert, resigned last week, others in the office told his successor, Lindsey Halligan, that charges should not be filed due to a lack of evidence, according to a source. Career prosecutors in the office also previously drafted a memo urging Halligan not to seek an indictment, saying the case lacked evidence to establish probable cause that a crime was committed, Reuters previously reported.

Underscoring the weakness of the case, the grand jury on Thursday declined to indict Comey on a third proposed charge, originally listed as count one of the indictment, of making a false statement to Congress in a different part of his Senate testimony stemming from a question related to the 2016 presidential election, court records show.

Halligan most recently served as a White House adviser, and before that was one of Trump's personal defense lawyers.

In a highly unusual move, Halligan personally presented the evidence to the grand jury on Thursday - a task typically performed by a line prosecutor and not the U.S. Attorney, according to four people briefed on the matter.

Comey's son-in-law, Troy Edwards, resigned from his position as a senior national security prosecutor following the news on Thursday, saying he was doing so in order to uphold his "oath to the Constitution and country," according to a copy of his resignation letter seen by Reuters.

Comey's eldest daughter, Maureen Comey, was fired from her job as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan in July. She filed a lawsuit earlier this month, with her lawyers saying in the complaint that she was fired "solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey."

Trump and Comey have had an acrimonious relationship since the start of the president's first term. Trump fired him as FBI director days after Comey publicly confirmed that the president was under investigation over his election campaign's connections to Russia. Comey then emerged as a prominent critic of the president, calling him "morally unfit" for office.

Comey's firing led to the appointment of another former FBI chief, Robert Mueller, being appointed as a special counsel to take charge of the Russia probe, which unearthed numerous contacts between the campaign and Russian officials, but concluded that there was not enough evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy.

Trump repeatedly attacked the investigation as a "witch hunt." His second administration has sought to undermine conclusions by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in which Trump defeated Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

VIDEO SHOWS: VARIOUS FILE FOOTAGE OF FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE FBI JAMES COMEY

RESENDING WITH UPDATED HEADLINE AND STORY. VIDEO HAS NOT CHANGED.

SHOWS: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - JUNE 8, 2017) (REUTERS – Access all) (MUTE)

1. STILL PHOTO OF FORMER FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY AS HE IS SWORN IN TO TESTIFY BEFORE A SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HEARING ON "RUSSIAN FEDERATION EFFORTS TO INTERFERE IN THE 2016 U.S. ELECTIONS" ON CAPITOL HILL IN WASHINGTON D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - JANUARY 22, 2017) (REUTERS – Access all) (MUTE)

2. STILL PHOTO OF DIRECTOR OF THE FBI JAMES COMEY WALKING TO GREET U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP DURING THE INAUGURAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS AND FIRST RESPONDERS RECEPTION IN THE BLUE ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE

3. STILL PHOTO OF U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP GREETING DIRECTOR OF THE FBI JAMES COMEY DURING THE INAUGURAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS AND FIRST RESPONDERS RECEPTION IN THE BLUE ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - JANUARY 22, 2017) (U.S. NETWORK POOL - No use USA)

4. THEN FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY CROSSING ROOM TO SHAKE HANDS WITH U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP AT MEETING WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL

WASHINGTON D.C. , UNITED STATES (FILE - SEPTEMBER 30, 2020) (UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

5. GENERAL VIEW OF HEARING

6. FORMER FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY BEING SWORN IN

7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM, SAYING:

"How could the FBI not know all of this? How is it possible that the system gathers so much exculpatory information - this internet rumor according to the CIA - that the actual interview of the subsource disavows the reliability of the document. The actual subsource was a suspected Russian spy. How could all that happen and not get up to you, the Director of the FBI, of one of the most important investigations in the history of the FBI? How is that possible?"

8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY, SAYING:

"I can only speculate because it didn't. And as I said, the investigation overall was incredibly important. The piece you're focused on is obviously important but a much smaller slice."

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - MAY 3, 2017) (UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

9. FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY BEING SWORN IN

10. WIDE OF SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

11. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY, SAYING:

"Look, this is terrible. It makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election. But honestly, it wouldn't change the decision. Everybody who disagrees with me has to come back to October 28th with me and stare at this and tell me what you would do. Would you speak or would you conceal? And I could be wrong, but we honestly made a decision between those two choices that even in hindsight, and this has been one of the world's most painful experiences, I would make the same decision."

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - MAY 10, 2017) (REUTERS – Access all)

12. VARIOUS OF FRONT PAGES OF MAJOR NEWSPAPERS WITH HEADLINES ABOUT TRUMP FIRING FBI DIRECTOR COMEY

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - MAY 10, 2017) (U.S. NETWORK POOL - No use USA)

13. U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP LISTENING AS REPORTER (OFF CAMERA) ASKS:

"Mr. President, why did you fire Director Comey? Why did you fire Director Comey?"

14. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, IN AN EXCHANGE WITH A REPORTER, RESPONDING TO A QUESTION ON WHY HE DISMISSED FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY:

"Because he wasn't doing a good job, very simply. He was not doing a good job. (Reporter crosstalk). Thank you."

MCLEAN, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES (FILE - MAY 14, 2017) (U.S. NETWORK POOL - No use USA)

15. FORMER FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY AND HIS WIFE PATRICE FAILOR WALKING OUT OF HOUSE AND GETTING IN BACK SEAT OF VEHICLE

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - JULY 5, 2016) (U.S. NETWORK POOL - No use USA)

16. THEN-FBI DIRECTOR COMEY ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE

17. (SOUNDBITE) (English) THEN-FBI DIRECTOR, JAMES COMEY, SAYING:

"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

VALLETTA, MALTA (FILE) (REUTERS – Access all) (MUTE)

18. STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF THEN-U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON CHECKING HER PHONE

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - OCTOBER 28, 2016) (FBI HANDOUT -Access all) (MUTE)

19. STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI) LETTER SAYING FBI WILL COMPLETE ADDITIONAL WORK REGARDING THE INVESTIGATION INTO CLINTON'S USE OF PERSONAL EMAIL SERVER

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - MAY 10, 2017) (REUTERS – Access all)

20. THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION HEADQUARTERS ENTRANCE SIGN READING (English): "J EDGAR HOOVER FBI BUILDING".

21. VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION HEADQUARTERS

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - JULY 7, 2016) (UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

22. COMEY BEING SWORN IN

23. HEARING TAKING PLACE

24. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY, SAYING:

" I believe this investigation was conducted consistent with the highest traditions of the FBI. Our folks did it in an apolitical and professional way."

25. WIDE OF HEARING

26. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY, SAYING:

"And so when I look at the facts we gathered here, as I said, I see evidence of great carelessness. But I do not see evidence that is sufficient to establish that Secretary Clinton or those with whom she was corresponding both talked about classified information on e-mail and knew when they did it they were doing something that was against the law. So given that assessment of the facts, my understanding of the law, my conclusion was and remains no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case. No reasonable prosecutor would bring the second case in a hundred years."

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FILE - APRIL 13, 2018) (REUTERS – Access all) (MUTE)

27. VARIOUS OF COMEY'S BOOK 'A HIGHER LOYALTY'

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FILE - APRIL 18, 2018) (REUTERS – Access all)

28. COMEY LEAVING STORE, GETTING INTO CAR

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - SEPTEMBER 4, 2013) (U.S. NETWORK POOL - No use USA)

29. VARIOUS OF THEN-U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER SWEARING IN JAMES COMEY AS FBI DIRECTOR

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - MARCH 20, 2017) (REUTERS – Access all) (MUTE)

30. STILL PHOTO OF FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY TESTIFYING BEFORE THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HEARING INTO ALLEGED RUSSIAN MEDDLING IN THE 2016 U.S. ELECTION, ON CAPITOL HILL