James Brien Comey Jr. is an American lawyer who served as the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until his termination in May 2017. Comey was a registered Republican for most of his adult life but stated he was unaffiliated in 2016.

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 also 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. 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 was highly controversial, with some analysts claiming his decisions might have cost her the presidency, particularly the decision to reopen the investigation into her emails less than two weeks before the election.

Donald Trump fired Comey on May 9, 2017. Statements from Trump and the White House suggested that Comey had been fired to ease the "pressure" Trump was under due to the Mueller investigation. Comey arranged for a friend to leak a memo he had written after a private meeting with Trump, leading to further accusations and investigations.

Reports by DOJ Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz criticized Comey's actions during the 2016 election, and while the Department of Justice declined to prosecute Comey, it did find that his actions violated DOJ and FBI policies.