Former FBI Director James Comey has questioned Donald Trump’s mental fitness, arguing that both the president and Department of Justice are operating at a level of chaos and disregard for the rule of law that exceeds even his first term.
“He doesn’t seem okay to me,” Comey, who was fired by Trump as FBI chief in 2017, told CNN Tuesday. “There was always something wrong with the man in that he lacks a moral center, but this seems off. This middle of the night obsessive truth after truth…retruthing and retruthing on his platform, seems crazy to me.”
Comey was indicted last month by a federal grand jury for allegedly threatening the president in a social media post which showed seashells arranged on sand to read “86 47.” The prosecution marks the second time the Trump administration has filed charges against Comey, and he has denied wrongdoing. The indictment came shortly after Pam Bondi was removed as attorney general and replaced by her deputy, Todd Blanche.
Asked by CNN whether Trump has changed since Comey served under him during his first term, he bluntly responded: “Yeah, he seems different in a bad way. Not different in you redid your hair, different in that you seem nuts buddy.”
Comey pointed to recent Truth Social posts in which Trump labeled former President Barack Obama a “traitor” and called for his arrest, along with other Democrats who he derides as “Dumacrats.”
“Calling for the incarceration of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it doesn’t get more vindictive and political than that,” Comey said. “I would hope the Department of Justice would resist that, but they don’t have a great track record so far.”
The former director warned that current and former officials should prepare for potential legal targeting by the administration. “I would expect there will be more efforts to get the president's enemies because he’s obsessed with it, and that’s really really sad,” he said.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
Comey also address the latest indictment filed under Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney.
“It appears that Pam Bondi’s standards were too high, so it’s concerning,” Comey said Tuesday. “I hope that Todd Blanche can find, maybe in his memory of his time at the Southern District of New York, where I was a federal prosecutor, a remembrance of the standards and the norms that have made the Department of Justice special for a long time. Most prominent among them: not being a political force.”
In an April 2025 Truth Social post directed towards Bondi, Trump explicitly called for the prosecution of Comey, who he has opposed since he oversaw the FBI’s probe into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia during his first term. Trump repeatedly described the investigation as a “witch hunt.”
Last September, a grand jury in Virginia indicted Comey on charges of making false statements and obstruction of justice related to his 2020 Senate testimony. The case was dismissed by a federal judge in November.
Now with a second indictment, Comey appeared under no illusions that this would be the last effort by the administration to prosecute him. “The process is the punishment with these characters,” he said.
He also argued that the Justice Department’s conduct in Trump’s second term marks a sharp departure from his first, when former Attorney General Bill Barr helmed the Justice Department.
“They’re managing to make Bill Barr look principled,” he told CNN. “I would like to see him speak out more to explain why he stood for the things he stood for.”
Since the start of his second term, Trump has embarked on a vengeance campaign against several political opponents.
The Justice Department also brought an indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James on one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution. Her case was dismissed by a judge in November. In 2022, James filed a civil fraud suit against Trump and the Trump Organization, alleging years of financial fraud. A judge initially ordered $450 million in penalties, though this was thrown out by an appeals court.
Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton — a target of Trump’s ire since his first term — was indicted in October on charges that he illegally transmitted and retained classified documents. And in January, federal prosecutors opened an investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who the president has long opposed over his opposition to lowering interest rates faster. The case was dropped last month.
Critics across the political spectrum say these actions reflect an erosion of judicial independence. Former President Obama recently warned that the White House should not direct prosecutions, describing Trump’s attorney general as a “consigliere.”
Trump and his allies reject those claims, arguing instead that Democrats weaponized the justice system first, citing criminal cases brought against him after his initial presidency.
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