The Comey Rule is an American political drama television miniseries written and directed by Billy Ray, based on the book A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by former FBI director James Comey. The miniseries stars Jeff Daniels as Comey and Brendan Gleeson as President Donald Trump. It aired in two parts from September 27 to September 28, 2020, on Showtime.
Plot
The series follows FBI director James Comey in the run-up to the 2016 election, and later in the early months of Donald Trump's presidency.
In 2015, Comey asks Mark F. Giuliano to stay on as the deputy FBI director to lead the Hillary Clinton e-mail server "Midyear" investigation.
The FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation in 2016 looks at George Papadopoulos, an advisor to the Trump campaign. GRU is said to have recruited Carter Page as an asset. Paul Manafort is said to be on the payroll of Russian oligarchs Oleg Deripaska and Dmytro Firtash. The investigation finds un-corroborated evidence that the Russian government had damaging information on Donald Trump when he stayed at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Moscow in 2013.
After closing the Midyear Clinton investigation in July 2016, the FBI re-opens the investigation in October 2016 because some Hillary Clinton server e-mails turn up in a new sexting scandal on Anthony Weiner's laptop computer.
The first episode ends with news reports that Hillary Clinton has called Donald Trump to concede the election to him.
In the second episode, the heads of the Intelligence Community tell Barack Obama that Russia wants a friendly Donald Trump in the White House to collapse NATO, end the Iran nuclear deal, allow oil drilling in the Arctic, set up a pathway for Turkish invasion against the Kurds, start a trade war with China, and sow discord above all.
Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak lobbies Michael Flynn to end economic sanctions against Russia after Obama expels 35 Russian diplomats and announces further sanctions on Russia. After the 2016 election, James Clapper and other intel chiefs discuss the Steele dossier with Obama during a briefing at the White House.
After Trump's election in 2016, the U.S. intel chiefs meet with the Trump campaign in Trump Tower New York to state that Russian government agents are using fake social media accounts at YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to duplicate pro-Trump propaganda at Russia Today and Sputnik Radio. Comey also accuses the Russians of attacking the voting process itself. The FBI intercepts five phone calls during which sanctions relief was discussed while Mike Pence tells Face the Nation that the phone calls between Kislyak and Flynn were about expressing condolences for the Russian plane crash.
Trump hosts Comey for a private dinner at the White House; during the meeting, Trump demands loyalty. Afterwards, Trump fires Sally Yates. Trump tells Comey he didn't give "a billion dollars to Iran like Obama did." Trump goes on to ask Comey to drop the FBI investigation on Michael Flynn.
The fourth and final episode ends with the dismissal of Comey along with the firings, resignations, re-assignments, and retirements of several appointed officials at the FBI and DOJ.
Cast
Main
Jeff Daniels as James Comey
Brendan Gleeson as Donald Trump
Holly Hunter as Sally Yates
Michael Kelly as Andrew McCabe
Jennifer Ehle as Patrice Comey
Scoot McNairy as Rod Rosenstein
Jonathan Banks as James Clapper
Oona Chaplin as Lisa Page
Amy Seimetz as Trisha Anderson
Steven Pasquale as Peter Strzok
Additional
Peter Coyote as Robert Mueller
William Sadler as Michael Flynn
T. R. Knight as Reince Priebus
Kingsley Ben-Adir as President Barack Obama
Brian d'Arcy James as Mark Giuliano
Steve Zissis as Jim Baker
Shawn Doyle as Bill Priestap
Seann Gallagher as Jim Rybicki
Damon Gupton as Jeh Johnson
Joe Lo Truglio as Jeff Sessions
Michael Hyatt as Loretta Lynch
Spencer Garrett as Bill Sweeney
John Bourgeois as John Brennan
Paul Bates as Denis McDonough
Anthony Bowden as George Papadopoulos
Harmon Walsh as Donald Trump Jr. Phillip Riccio as Jared Kushner Nicolas Van Burek as Stephen Miller Richard Binsley as Alexander Downer Shauna McDonald as Natalia Veselnitskaya Tony Munch as Sergey Lavrov Stass Klassen as Vladimir Putin Harold Tausch as Mike Rogers Andrew Di Rosa as Agent Hartz (NYFO)