James Brien "Jim" Comey Jr. born December 14, 1960 is an American lawyer who served as the seventh Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from September 4, 2013, until his dismissal by President Donald Trump on May 9, 2017. Comey was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from January 2002 to December 2003, and subsequently, the United States Deputy Attorney General, from December 2003 to August 2005. As Deputy Attorney General, Comey was the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), and ran its day-to-day operations.In December 2003, as U.S. Deputy Attorney General, Comey appointed the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, Illinois, close friend and former colleague Patrick Fitzgerald, to be the Special Counsel to head the CIA Leak Grand Jury Investigation also known as the "Plame affair", after Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself. In August 2005, Comey left the DOJ and became General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2010, he became General Counsel at Bridgewater Associates, based in Westport, Connecticut.
In early 2013, he left Bridgewater to become a Senior Research Scholar and a Hertog Fellow on National Security Law at Columbia Law School in the city of New York. He served on the Board of Directors of HSBC Holdings until July 2013. In September 2013, Comey was appointed Director of the FBI by President Barack Obama. In that capacity, he was responsible for overseeing the FBI's investigation of the Hillary Clinton email controversy. His role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, particularly with regard to his public communications, was highly controversial. His decisions have been regarded by many analysts, including Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, to have likely cost Clinton the election.
