Question

Trump said he used presidential power to have James Comey arrested and warned critics and Iran.

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Exhibit 1 for his trial for violations of our First Amendment rights.

Answer 1

The claim that Donald Trump said he used presidential power to have James Comey arrested is not credible. It comes from a Bluesky post by an unverified account, not a trusted news source. The account does not show any clear expertise or fact-checking process, which makes it unreliable. When I checked major news organizations none of them reported anything like this. If a president had actually said this, it would be widely covered by credible media. Instead, the only well-documented event is that Trump fired Comey in 2017, not that he had him arrested.

There is also no original evidence to support the claim. I could not find any speech, interview, official record, or verified video where Trump says this. Real claims can be traced back to a clear source. On top of that, the claim does not make sense legally. A president cannot simply order someone’s arrest on their own; it requires legal steps involving law enforcement and the Department of Justice. Because the claim comes from an unreliable source, has no supporting evidence, and goes against how the U.S. legal system works.

Answer 2

While researching the claim made by this poster, I found it to be mostly untrue. On the topic of James Comey, there is no evidence that I have found that Trump arrested Comey. He has been indicted but not arrested. He was indicted by a North Carolina grand jury which means that there was sufficient evidence for Comey to be charged with a crime but he has not been arrested. This was also an effort of the Trump Administration as a whole as well as acting attorney general Todd Blanche not just Donald Trump. I think it is important to have a distinction between the two especially in cases like this. I found an article written by AP News which claims to be the first news source to have reported on this indictment. There is a little bit of bias in the article in the favor of Comey but the information being reported on is largely unaffected by this. I also found an article written by The New York Times that corroborates the information being reported by AP News. 

Switching over the claims on Iran, I also find these to be largely unsubstantiated. According to CNN, Congress has been pushing to pass measures limiting the President's war powers. Also according to CNN, Trump has plans to receive more information on Iran in a briefing with Pentagon officials. This briefing was first reported by Axios. This CNN article does talk about how Trump plans to "inflict economic pain" but nothing has been done to prove this claim as of writing this. The Tweet that this Bluesky user posted as their evidence is a screenshot of Trump's Twitter account claiming a lot of things. Trump is known for saying a lot of things, and claiming a lot of violent actions. The things that he says are rarely true and often exaggerating any truth that is possibly being said.