The Justice Department indicted former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday after President Donald Trump publicly complained that Attorney General Pam Bondi hadn’t secured charges against him and some of his other political adversaries.Bondi confirmed the news on X, saying on social media that the indictment is emblematic of the Justice Department’s “commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people.” Comey, whom Trump has long accused of criminal conduct related to his FBI investigation into possible collusion between Russia and his campaign during the 2016 election, was indicted on one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice.Former FBI Director James Comey in 2018.via Associated PressThe indictment, handed down by a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, concerns congressional testimony Comey gave on Sept. 30, 2020.It accuses him of lying when he said he had not “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports” in testimony he gave in 2017 that was read back to him by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in 2020. Comey confirmed that he stood by the 2017 testimony.The indictment comes days before a five-year statute of limitations was set to run out.The “news reports” are not specified in the indictment, but appear to relate to reporting about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s charitable foundation. Former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe has alleged that Comey told him he could leak information about then-ongoing investigations to the Journal, while Comey has long said he did no such thing. The grand jury declined to indict Comey on an additional count of making false statements, however.Prosecutors had alleged that Comey also lied when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked him during his 2020 testimony if he was aware of a plan by Clinton to tie Trump to Russia to distract from concerns about her use of a private email server. Comey replied, “That doesn’t ring any bells with me.”It is not clear why the grand jury did not return an indictment on this count.In a video posted to social media, Comey stated his innocence and welcomed the trial. Here is the entirety of his remarks:My family and I have known for years that there are costs to 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. 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. I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does. 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.CNN reported that Comey plans to surrender on Friday morning.Trump was ecstatic about the news in a Truth Social post.“JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” he wrote Friday, adding of Comey: “He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation.”Trump continued to celebrate the indictment on Friday morning, debuting a new nickname: “James ‘Dirty Cop’ Comey.”As the president walked from the White House to Marine One, he told reporters that the matter was one of “justice” and not “retribution.” “It wasn’t like, ‘Well, maybe,’ or ‘I don’t remember,’” Trump said of Comey’s testimony, asserting that he had gotten caught in a lie.Current FBI Director Kash Patel also praised the news, calling Comey’s “Russiagate” investigation “a disgraceful chapter in history we continue to investigate and expose.”Trump, who fired Comey abruptly in 2017, made his prosecutorial expectations clear in a Sept. 20 Truth Social post directed at Bondi.“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote, arguing that Comey, along with other political enemies like Sen. Adam Schiff and Attorney General Letitia James of New York, are “all guilty as hell” and that the DOJ has a “GREAT CASE.”“JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” Trump wrote at the time. Though Trump has long condemned Comey for leading a so-called “witch hunt” against him, the results of the Russia investigation ― which was taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller after Trump fired Comey ― determined that Russia did attempt to influence the 2016 election. And while the investigation did not confirm any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, according to officials involved in the investigation, it also did not “exonerate” Trump, as he’s claimed.Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to reporters alongside President Donald Trump in Junvia Associated PressEarlier this month, Trump forced U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert out of his job because he hadn’t secured indictments against Comey and James.Days before Siebert handed in his resignation, sources told The New York Times that he had told his superiors at the Justice Department the cases against Comey and James were weak and unlikely to result in charges.Trump replaced Siebert with Lindsey Halligan, a White House adviser and his former personal lawyer with no prior experience as a prosecutor. While working for Trump, Halligan was given the task of ridding the Smithsonian Institution of “improper ideology.”Trump praised her in his post directed at Bondi, writing, “Lindsey Halligan is a really good lawyer, and likes you, a lot.”