Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded now not to blame to 2 prison fees in a federal court docket in Alexandria, Virginia, on Oct. 8, 2025. The fees allege that Comey lied to Congress in September 2020 when he stood via previous testimony that he didn’t authorize a leak of an FBI investigation involving Hillary Clinton.
A lot of prison commentators on each the left and proper have argued that Comey’s indictment is little greater than the Trump management in the hunt for vengeance on one of the vital president’s perceived enemies. They allege that the president has it out for Comey, who investigated Russian interference within the 2016 presidential election and whom Trump fired in 2017.
The president’s personal phrases enhance the concept the Trump management is concentrated on Comey. In a social media publish on Sept. 20, 2025, Trump directed Lawyer Common Pam Bondi to transport ahead with prosecutions in opposition to Comey, Democratic U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Lawyer Common Letitia James: “They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done. …JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
If the case in opposition to Comey is exceedingly vulnerable – and little greater than a political prosecution – then, personally as a pupil of the U.S. prison device, it will have to outcome within the dismissal of fees via the pass judgement on or a now not to blame verdict via the jury.
However even if a person isn’t convicted, the method of protecting in opposition to fees can itself be a type of punishment, as famend prison pupil Malcolm Feeley identified virtually 50 years in the past.
Right here’s how the prison justice procedure punishes even blameless other folks.
Whilst you’re prosecuted via the federal government, it could actually upend your lifestyles.
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The prison justice procedure
The prison justice procedure is advanced.
After a grand jury returns an indictment on the request of a prosecutor, the accused seems in court docket for his or her arraignment. They’re knowledgeable of the costs in opposition to them and generally input a plea.
All through what’s known as “discovery,” the prosecution and protection examine the proof the opposite aspect plans to depend on. There also are pretrial motions during which the events ask judges to brush aside fees and settle for or exclude proof.
The protection and prosecution may additionally meet to talk about a plea cut price, in which the accused would possibly plead to blame in change for a lesser sentence or lowered fees.
If there’s no plea cut price, then the case strikes to trial, which is itself a sophisticated procedure. If a defendant is located to blame, they are able to mount an enchantment to raised courts in an try to have their conviction overturned.
To assist navigate this procedure, prison defendants generally rent a attorney.
And excellent legal professionals don’t come reasonable.
Time and money
Indigent defendants, who shouldn’t have the monetary sources to pay their very own prison charges, can depend on public defenders paid for via the federal government.
However people who can find the money for to pay for their very own attorney face a considerable monetary burden for lawyer products and services and court docket charges. An skilled prison protection attorney can price greater than US$1,000 in step with hour, with charges briefly including up. Which means mounting a prison protection can simply price tens of 1000’s of greenbacks.
On most sensible of this, it takes an excessive amount of time to organize for a prison case. Whilst legal professionals and their body of workers do a lot of the legwork for trial preparation, a consumer works with their lawyers to assist formulate a protection.
In consequence, prison defendants lose some of the valuable commodities on the planet: their time.
And this time can come at a tangible price within the type of misplaced wages, which harms their day by day lives. Put merely, each and every hour spent making ready for trial is an hour defendants may spend running or taking part in their lives.
Patrice Failor, heart, spouse of former FBI Director James Comey, is embraced via daughters Claire Comey, left, and Maurene Comey on the courthouse in Alexandria, Va., the place James Comey used to be arraigned and pleaded now not to blame on Oct. 8, 2025.
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Rigidity and embarrassment
It’s now not delightful being charged with a criminal offense.
The prison procedure, which generally lasts months, takes a toll on one’s psychological well being. That is in large part pushed via the uncertainty surrounding the end result of a prison trial and the opportunity of dropping one’s freedom if convicted.
As well as, there’s a social stigma that incorporates being accused of a criminal offense. This may end up in reputational injury, nervousness and embarrassment.
The Trump management seems to acknowledge this truth.
A number of media shops have reported that FBI management had deliberate a public perp stroll for Comey.
No longer all prison defendants undergo the similar
The level to which prison defendants enjoy the prison justice procedure as a type of punishment varies from individual to individual.
For prime-status other folks like Comey, misplaced wages and lawyers’ and court docket charges might not be that gigantic of a deal.
However those prices is also extremely vital for different individuals who were, or usually are, focused via the Trump management.
The prime prices of legal professionals’ charges are widely recognized to the president. As an example, his political motion committee spent tens of millions of greenbacks on lawyers’ charges in an unsuccessful effort to shield Trump from prison fees in New York.
As well as, other folks unquestionably enjoy the mental pressure and stigma of a imaginable prison conviction in a different way. However without reference to one’s wealth, the misplaced time spent making ready a prison protection is one thing that can’t be changed.
The popularity that the prison procedure is itself a type of punishment is likely one of the causes that the Division of Justice has maintained independence from the president. By means of violating the custom of staying out of politics, the Justice Division within the Trump management has opened the door for the president to hunt retribution on his perceived political enemies.
The mere act of hanging them in the course of the prison procedure guarantees that they undergo, without reference to their guilt or innocence.
