• What Happened: Former FBI Director James Comey was subpoenaed last week by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida as part of the DOJ's sweeping "grand conspiracy" investigation into Obama and Biden era officials who investigated and prosecuted President Trump. The probe has now issued over 130 subpoenas.
  • Why It Matters: The grand jury is being overseen by Judge Aileen Cannon, the same Trump-appointed judge who threw out the classified documents case against Trump in 2024. A previous attempt to prosecute Comey in the Eastern District of Virginia failed. This time the venue is very different.
  • Bottom Line: Comey got away with it in Virginia. He is not in Virginia anymore.

For years James Comey walked free. A previous attempt to prosecute him in the Eastern District of Virginia collapsed. He wrote books. He gave speeches. He posted self-righteous quotes on social media and lectured the country about the rule of law.

Last week, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida handed him a subpoena.

The grand jury probe, led by Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones, is investigating whether former intelligence and law enforcement officials waged a years-long grand conspiracy against Donald Trump, bending rules, breaking laws, and lying under oath from the moment he was elected in 2016 through his federal indictments in 2023. The investigation has already issued more than 130 subpoenas targeting officials who served under Presidents Obama and Biden.

Comey's subpoena relates specifically to his alleged role in drafting the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference, the document that concluded Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Trump. Trump allies have long argued that assessment was politically tainted, improperly incorporated material tied to the debunked Steele Dossier, and was used to delegitimize Trump's presidency before he had even assembled his Cabinet. A recent CIA review reportedly found the assessment violated basic intelligence tradecraft standards and showed evidence of political bias.

Comey is not alone in receiving a subpoena. Former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe have all previously been subpoenaed in the same probe. McCabe's attorney called the investigation "a vendetta in search of a crime."

The venue is not accidental. The grand jury is being overseen by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce, Florida. Cannon is the same Trump-appointed judge who threw out the federal classified documents case against Trump in 2024. She is the sole federal district judge at the Fort Pierce courthouse, and the Southern District of Florida carries a considerably more Trump-friendly jury pool than Washington D.C. or the Eastern District of Virginia, where Comey's previous prosecution failed.

Critics including Brennan's legal team have accused the DOJ of forum shopping, deliberately steering the investigation toward Fort Pierce to get Cannon on the bench and a favorable jury pool. Trump's DOJ has not apologized for the strategy.

Attorney General Pam Bondi directed prosecutors last year to investigate actions surrounding the 2016 election. While critics argue the statute of limitations should bar any prosecution of decade-old conduct, Trump allies contend that officials took steps in furtherance of the alleged conspiracy within the five-year window, keeping charges viable.

The Russia investigation consumed Donald Trump's first term, spawned years of media coverage, launched multiple special counsel probes, and cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars. Comey called it all legitimate. Trump called it the greatest hoax in American political history.

Judge Cannon's grand jury is about to hear evidence on who was right.