James Comey's son-in-law quits Justice Department after former FBI director's indictment

Audio By Carbonatix

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — James Comey’s son-in-law resigned as a federal prosecutor Thursday minutes after the former FBI director was indicted.

Troy Edwards quit his job “to uphold my oath to the Constitution and the country,” he wrote in a one-sentence resignation letter addressed to Lindsey Halligan, the newly appointed acting U.S. Attorney in Virginia’s Eastern District, the office that charged Comey and employed Edwards.

Edwards was the deputy chief of the National Security Section, a prestigious role in a U.S. attorney’s office that covers the Pentagon and CIA headquarters, handling some of the highest-profile espionage cases.

He was on the team of prosecutors who convicted Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes of orchestrating a violent plot to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to keep President Donald Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election.

Comey was charged with lying to Congress days after Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute the former FBI director and other perceived political enemies. Halligan had rushed to present the case to a grand jury this week before the five-year statute of limitations expired. She brought the charges days after the resignation of her predecessor, who had not charged Comey and had faced pressure to bring charges against another Trump target, New York Attorney General Letitia James, in a mortgage fraud investigation.

Comey said Thursday that he's innocent and welcomed a trial, adding he has “great confidence in the federal judicial system.”

Edwards was watching from the front row of the courtroom gallery when his wife’s father was indicted Thursday evening.

His resignation comes two months after the Justice Department fired Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, without explanation in July. She had been a veteran lawyer in the Southern District of New York, long considered the most elite federal prosecution office.

She sued the government this month to get her job back, saying her firing was for political reasons and was unconstitutional.

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan's first name.

___

Cooper reported from Phoenix.