On the latest episode of Breaking Battlegrounds, hosts Chuck Warren and Sam Stone welcomed Jon Levine of the Free Beacon to dissect one of the most shocking headlines in recent memory: former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted.

For years, Comey positioned himself as the moral compass of the FBI, famously declaring that “nobody is above the law” when vowing to prosecute leakers and those who lied to federal investigators. Now, he finds himself facing those same accusations.

The conversation quickly turned to the selective way false statement charges are applied. Levine noted that Republicans often seem to bear the brunt of such prosecutions, while Democrats and entrenched bureaucrats skate by. He pointed to examples like James Clapper misleading Congress about surveillance on Americans — a blatant falsehood that went unpunished. This, Levine argued, is part of a broader culture within the FBI and Department of Justice: “There’s so much open criminality… that we don’t even think about it anymore. But Republicans get nailed, while others walk free.”

The panel agreed: if Comey had simply kept quiet after 2020 instead of publicly taunting Trump, the Justice Department might never have pursued charges. But by repeatedly inserting himself into political battles, Comey may have painted a target on his own back.

Legally, the case against Comey may be simpler than other high-profile prosecutions. Unlike sprawling financial cases such as Hunter Biden’s, this boils down to a binary choice: either Comey lied, or his former deputy Andrew McCabe did. As Sam Stone emphasized, federal indictments aren’t easy to secure. A grand jury of at least 16 members had to sign off on the charges, suggesting prosecutors presented a convincing case. But conviction is another matter. Because the trial will likely take place in Northern Virginia — a region packed with federal workers and left-leaning jurors — even one dissenting voice could hang a jury. That political reality makes the outcome uncertain, even if the facts seem straightforward.

Beyond Comey himself, this case strikes at a larger question of faith in America’s justice system. Is the law applied evenly, regardless of political affiliation? Or do double standards determine who faces consequences and who doesn’t? As the hosts summed up, the indictment of a man who once wielded the FBI’s immense power could either reinforce the principle that “nobody is above the law” — or confirm public suspicion that justice is a partisan weapon.

Transcript

**Chuck Warren: **So James Comey was indicted yesterday. I was talking to a friend this morning about it and we were laughing that, you know, the press always likes to bring out, well, he made these comments five years ago. You know, Democrats just seem to think, well, if something happened more than a year ago, two years ago, we should dismiss it because it’s old.

**Sam Stone: **Well, dismiss it on one side.

**Chuck Warren: **Yeah. But what’s amazing about this with James Comey, I’m convinced if after 2020 he had just shut up instead of going on and taunting Trump all the time. I’m not sure, the charges are legit, but I’m just not sure they would have ever gone after the charges. What are your thoughts?

**Jon Levine: **Well you know making false statements is one of those is one of those things that if they want to prosecute you they can always do that.

**Chuck Warren: **Right.

**Jon Levine: **And it it’s only Republicans that ever get roped into making false statement charges. Democrats and these other deep state pipes can make false statement all the time with no consequences. The many examples I could point to you. I remember when James Clapper said they weren’t spying on Americans. You know there’s lots of stuff and he was never targeted. As as as it’s been said many a time nobody is above the law you’ve heard that right?

**Sam Stone: **Right. Well, Comey said, I mean, like, if you go back, I think it was 2021 when he said these leaker, leakers will be prosecuted. We’re going after them. I mean, he made a big point of this.

**Jon Levine: **Right and I mean this there’s so much open criminality in in the FBI in the justice department that not even we don’t even think about it. But it’s just at like I remember when they were all those nasty leaks about Matt Gate. Which I don’t want to repeat here becuase they’re frankly libelyst but they were they were insinuating things about him that were not true for a year and then the and then the the investigation closed with no charges filed.

But all those leaks making very scurrilous accusations by a by a FBI. All of the leaks are criminal. You can’t leak active stuff on an active invesigation on somebody. Who leaks those kind of stuff and that kind of thing happened all the time in in our Department of Justice. This is never prosecuted and noone looks into it. And look are we gonna have equal application of law or not? And I don’t know if if the charges are bogus than a jury will acquit him and then we’ll be done with it.

You can’t control the jury, if a jury listens to it. Grand jury indicted him they tried to get out their indictments that weren’t accepted by the grand jury. If a jury or his peers decided he’s guilty then that’s it.

**Chuck Warren: **Well, here’s the thing too. I looked this up yesterday. I think on a federal jury, I looked it up, you have to have at least 16 people on a grand jury agree with the charges to indict. It’s a big lift. It’s not a simple lift for a federal charge.

**Sam Stone: **I’ll throw this out. What are the chances of actually getting an indictment because you’re trying him in Northern Virginia where all you need is one.

****Chuck Warren: **You mean a conviction.

****Sam Stone: **Conviction because all you need is one cookie-pushing left-wing bureaucrat on the jury to hang it.

**Jon Levine: **Well but that that’s going to be something down the road. And we’ll have to see I don’t know but to me this is not a complicated case.

****Chuck Warren: **No.

**Jon Levine: **Like if he did it it should be pretty easy to prove like this is x this is y. It’s not like Hunter Biden where we’re going through reams and reams of financial documents and contracts and you know. So I don’t if there’s a there there I think it’ll come out.

****Chuck Warren: **Either he lied or McCabe lied. It’s a simple charge, one or the other, right? And so it’s a simple one.

Listen to the full episode of Breaking Battlegrounds anywhere you stream your podcasts!