James Comey
American lawyer and 7th director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (born 1960)
James Brien Comey Jr. (; born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer who was the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until his termination in May 2017.
During the presidential administration of George W. Bush, Comey was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from January 2002 to December 2003 and later the United States deputy attorney general from December 2003 to August 2005. In August 2005, Comey left the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to become a senior vice president of Lockheed Martin as general counsel. In 2010, he became general counsel at Bridgewater Associates. In early 2013, he left Bridgewater to become a senior research scholar and Hertog fellow on national security law at Columbia Law School. He served on the board of directors of HSBC Holdings until July 2013.
In September 2013, Barack Obama appointed Comey to the position of Director of the FBI. During his tenure, Comey oversaw the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official communications while serving as Secretary of State, some of which contained information later determined to be classified. His handling of the investigation, particularly his public statements and decision to reopen the investigation shortly before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, became a major source of controversy. On June 14, 2018, DOJ Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz released his report on the FBI's handling of the Clinton email investigation, which criticized Comey's actions during the 2016 election.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “James Comey” is american lawyer and 7th director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (born 1960). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through James, Comey and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american lawyer and 7th director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (born 1960)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q167607. VIAF identifies the subject as 16938946. The Library of Congress control number is no2004077346. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 2013, 2017 and 2002.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “James Comey”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow James Comey primary sources, James Comey archive and James research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “James Comey”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “James Comey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.