By Paul M. Collins Jr.
Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty to two criminal charges in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Oct. 8, 2025. The charges allege that Comey lied to Congress in September 2020 when he stood by earlier testimony that he did not authorize a leak of an FBI investigation involving Hillary Clinton.
Numerous legal commentators on both the left and right have argued that Comey’s indictment is little more than the Trump administration seeking vengeance on one of the president’s perceived enemies. They allege that the president has it out for Comey, who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and was fired by Trump in 2017.
The president’s own words support the idea that the Trump administration is targeting Comey. In a social media post on Sept. 20, 2025, Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to move forward with prosecutions against Comey, Democratic U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James: “They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done. …JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
If the case against Comey is exceedingly weak – and little more than a political prosecution – then, in my view as a scholar of the U.S. legal system, it should result in the dismissal of charges by the judge or a not guilty verdict by the jury.
But even when an individual is not convicted, the process of defending against charges can itself be a form of punishment, as renowned legal scholar Malcolm Feeley pointed out almost 50 years ago.
Here’s how the criminal justice process punishes even innocent people.
The criminal justice process
The criminal justice process is complex.
After a grand jury returns an indictment at the request of a prosecutor, the accused appears in court for their arraignment. They are informed of the charges against them and typically enter a plea.
During what’s called “discovery,” the prosecution and defense investigate the evidence the other side plans to rely on. There are also pretrial motions in which the parties ask judges to dismiss charges and accept or exclude evidence.
The defense and prosecution may also meet to discuss a plea bargain, wherein the accused may plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence or reduced charges.
If there is no plea bargain, then the case moves to trial, which is itself a complicated process. If a defendant is found guilty, they can mount an appeal to higher courts in an attempt to have their conviction overturned.
To help navigate this process, criminal defendants typically hire a lawyer.
And good lawyers don’t come cheap.
Money and time
Indigent defendants, who do not have the financial resources to pay their own legal fees, can rely on public defenders paid for by the government.
But individuals who can afford to pay for their own lawyer face a substantial financial burden for attorney services and court fees. An experienced criminal defense lawyer can charge more than US$1,000 per hour, with fees quickly adding up. This means that mounting a legal defense can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars.
On top of this, it takes a great deal of time to prepare for a criminal case. While lawyers and their staff do much of the legwork for trial preparation, a client works with their attorneys to help formulate a defense.
As a result, criminal defendants lose one of the most precious commodities in the world: their time.
And this time can come at a tangible cost in the form of lost wages, which harms their day-to-day lives. Put simply, every hour spent preparing for trial is an hour defendants could spend working or enjoying their lives.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Stress and embarrassment
It’s not pleasant being charged with a crime.
The criminal process, which typically lasts months, takes a toll on one’s mental health. This is largely driven by the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of a criminal trial and the possibility of losing one’s freedom if convicted.
In addition, there is a social stigma that comes with being accused of a crime. This can result in reputational damage, anxiety and embarrassment.
The Trump administration appears to recognize this reality.
Several media outlets have reported that FBI leadership had planned a public perp walk for Comey.
According to a CBS News report, this was to have included “‘large, beefy’ agents … ‘in full kit,’ including Kevlar vests and exterior wear emblazoned with the FBI logo.” Apparently, the plan was aborted after several FBI supervisors refused to cooperate, viewing it as inappropriate. One agent was disciplined for insubordination after refusing to go along with the plan to embarrass Comey in this way.
Not all criminal defendants suffer the same
The extent to which criminal defendants experience the criminal justice process as a form of punishment varies from person to person.
For high-status people like Comey, lost wages and attorneys’ and court fees may not be that big of a deal.
But these costs may be incredibly significant for other people who have been, or are likely to be, targeted by the Trump administration.
The high costs of lawyers’ fees are well known to the president. For instance, his political action committee spent millions of dollars on attorneys’ fees in an unsuccessful effort to defend Trump from criminal charges in New York.
In addition, people no doubt experience the psychological stress and stigma of a possible criminal conviction differently. But regardless of one’s wealth, the lost time spent preparing a criminal defense is something that cannot be replaced.
The recognition that the criminal process is itself a form of punishment is one of the reasons that the Department of Justice has maintained independence from the president. By violating the tradition of staying out of politics, the Justice Department in the Trump administration has opened the door for the president to seek retribution on his perceived political enemies.
The mere act of putting them through the criminal process ensures that they suffer, regardless of their guilt or innocence.
Paul M. Collins Jr. is Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science at UMass Amherst.
Jackson says
Trump’s indictments of his “enemies” without any valid charges serves several goals: it’s meant to fulfill his years-long promise to his MAGA base to prosecute people who have tried to reign him in (“th’ deep state!”); it allows him to flush out of the DOJ and the courts a number of people not slavishly “loyal” to him; and it serves to distract from the Epstein files.
TrumpHole says
Wasn’t a Lt.Gen., a Trump ally, put through the ringer and end up losing his house and his money he earned from only a military salary because he had to pay for a mouthpiece. Remember Michael Flynn? He had to plead guilty for lying to the FBI. It was all bulls#!t and he lost everything. The left has no sympathy for him or any of the many others who were punished in the same way, guilty by association to Trump. Somebody high up on the left was driving that car. So why should we care about Comey? He lied to the world, to the US Congress, to all of us on national television, about the greatest president of all time!!! Perhaps his lies should be brought to the forefront for the world to see. TDS is a real thing folks. Ask Rosie…..and Pierre! It’s becoming their addiction, TDSA!!
JimboXYZ says
It’s a shame that Biden pardoned his entire family. The entire lot of them would be getting justice, not revenge from Trump. We had to listen to 4 years of Biden telling us nobody was above the law, except if their last name was Biden.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2025/01/20/biden-pardons-five-more-family-members-minutes-before-leaving-office/
Atwp says
The Republican voters are not thinking like they should.
Ed P says
Trump
Bannon
Flynn
Papadopoulos
Navarro
Cohen
Manafort
Barrack
Broidy
Gates
Nader
Weisselberg
Let’s not look back, but move forward. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
But these guys really deserved it.
Intellectual honesty?
Laurel says
Didn’t I tell you the Trump admin would create a lot of law suits and court time? Trump is using the justice system for his personal retaliation and the ruining and disrupting of people’s lives, because they did their jobs. We tax payers are paying to make normal people’s live miserable, so that one man can spread his personal misery around.
Trump is not your retribution.
You are his.
Can you afford it?
JW says
I have quoted this before from the Xenophobe’s guide to the American’s: Americans are like children: noisy, curious, unable to keep a secret, not given to subtlety, and prone to misbehave in public.
On top of that most Americans act with form over substance (probably due to an overload of lawyers)
This explains the article by Paul M. Collins, which touches on the current government’s playbook. Don’t think too much just act from the gut. I doubt this is a winning strategy.
This morning’s report about the ongoing battle between America and China shows the same: it is childish, not a strategy!
Ray W. says
Newsweek just published a story in which the term “fedsurrection” was used, a term that I admit I had never heard before.
Apparently, in September Blaze Media, a media outlet about which I am unfamiliar, published a story supported by an “unnamed congressional source” that 274 plainclothes FBI agents were “imbedded in Jan. 6 crowds.” President Trump picked up on the story and suggested that the DOJ should investigate the claim; he posted to Truth Social the following:
“It was just revealed that the FBI had secretly placed, against all Rules, Regulations, Protocols, and Standards, 274 FBI Agents into the Crowd just prior to, and during, the January 6th Hoax. This is different from what Director Christopher Wray stated, over and over again! That’s right, as it now turns out, FBI Agents were at, and in, the January 6th Protest, probably acting as Agitators and Insurrectionists, but certainly not as “Law Enforcement Officials.” I want to know who each and every one of these so-called “Agents” are, and what they were up to on that now “Historic” Day. Many Great American Patriots were made to pay a very big price only for the love of their Country.”
Shortly thereafter, FBI director Kash Patel posted to X that on January 6th, 274 agents had been “thrown into crowd control”. Director Patel went on to assert that these 274 agents had been deployed “against FBI standards.” He accused then-FBI director Christopher Wray of being less than completely transparent about the action.
Just after midnight this morning, President Trump posted:
“THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6. If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies. What a SCAM – DO SOMETHING!!!”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I have to wonder.
If it is true that President Trump was still president on January 6, 2021, and if it is true that Director Wray was nominated by President Trump to head the FBI prior to being sworn into office on August 2, 2017, then how can President Trump support his claim that a “BIDEN FBI” placed 274 agents into the crowd prior to and during the insurrection when Director Patel asserts that the 274 agents were sent to the scene in response to the assault on the capitol?