Reports have surfaced about a potential book deal for former FBI Director James Comey, said to be worth around $10 million.
Now that former FBI Director James Comey is out of the public sector, many avenues for work have opened up.
If there’s one thing that’s for certain, it’s that Comey won’ t be unemployed or lacking income for long.
Comey, who is now a private citizen after being fired by President Donald Trump on May 9, said during his bombshell testimony June 8 that he is “between opportunities right now.”
That became even more abundantly clear after Jerry Oppenheimer wrote a piece for the Daily Mail saying that a massive book deal is in the works for Comey and his incredible story.
Here’s what you need to know about that book and the potential deal:
Oppenheimer wrote that major publishers have come to Comey with all sorts of offers, with some pledging to give him as much as $10 million for a book deal.
“Jim Comey’s story has everything, from White House intrigue to possible corruption and law breaking, ” an employee with a New York publishing company told Daily Mail. “His explosive story makes ‘West Wing’ and ‘House of Cards’ on a par with Mister Rogers.”
The executive said that the company has authorized him to offer as much as $10 million to Comey. That’s a lot more than the $172,100 annual salary Comey made as the FBI director.
The reported $10 million price tag is a lot, but it’s nowhere near the amount that Bill and Hillary Clinton received for their separate books.
Bill received $15 million for My Life — worth $19 million today — and Hillary nabbed $14 million for her 2014 book titled Hard Choices .
Still, that’s a far cry for what Barack and Michelle Obama will receive for a joint-book deal. Penguin Random House landed a deal in February with the Obamas to have rights to books by the Obamas for $60 million.
Former FBI Director James Comey answered questions by members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. Watch a full video replay of the hearing.
Comey will be able to tell the story of his personal upbringing and encounters with others, however he’ ll have to stop short of writing about any classified information, most of what he dealt with as the director of the agency.
But one of the more interesting things Comey is destined to write about is the FBI’s investigation into Hillary. He has yet to tell his side of the story of the investigation, as well as his personal dealings with Trump — aside from his seven-page testimony.
On October 28,2016, just one week before the 2016 presidential election, Comey and the FBI wrote a letter to congressional leaders saying that the agency re-opened an investigation into Clinton to see if classified materials were in some of the emails she sent on her private email server while she was secretary of state .
Clinton has since gone on to blame Comey’s letter and the timing of it all for her loss in the election to Trump.
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When Comey was just 16-years-old, he and his brother Peter were the victims of a scary crime. A gunman entered their home in suburban New Jersey and locked the brothers inside of a bathroom in the home.
The man continued to point a gun at them and proceeded to move throughout the home and steal many items.
The brothers eventually forced their way out through a bathroom window and found the gunman in the yard. He left the house and went to assault a high school teacher and his wife and her mother across the street, but turned back once he saw the Comey brothers. The two brothers then ran back into the home and locked the door, phoning police.
The incident happened in October 1997, and the gunman was holding a .38 caliber revolver to their heads, The Daily Beast reported .
The gunman fled into the woods, and the Comey brothers helped police in making an artist sketch at the suspect in the crime.
Over 150 officers and firefighters searched the wooded area with helicopters. The man was finally caught, and he was a wanted criminal that was known to many as the Ramsey Rapist. He was named that because he broke into homes and raped babysitters.
“We escaped, he caught us again, we escaped again –- so it was a pretty horrific experience, ” Comey said to The Daily Beast. “Frightening to anybody, but especially for a younger person to be threatened with a gun and to believe you’ re going to be killed by this guy.”
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In his testimony to Senate, some commented on Comey’s great ability to write. Of course, that comes from his many years attending law school and working as a law clerk.
Comey graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1982, where he majored in chemistry and religion. He wrote a senior thesis while going to school there that compared Reinhold Niebuhr, a liberal theologian, and Jerry Falwell, a conservative televangelist.
Comey was a journalist at the college, and he once wrote a three-part series for the campus newspaper, The Flat Hat, in 1980. That series was about retaining and recruiting African-American students to the United States military.
He went on to receive his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 1985. Fresh out of school, he worked as a law clerk in New York, where he was able to build on his ability to write.
“This guy can write, ” an executive told the Daily Mail in its article on Comey’s book deal. “His story and the way he tells it is spellbinding. Ten million dollars is not an outrageous amount for his story. I ran some numbers and I could see us selling a million copies – especially if he goes way beyond what he’s stated publicly.”
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It’s not just a book deal that executives at companies across the nation are salivating at the mouth for. There’s also talks, according to Oppenheimer, of a Hollywood movie deal. He wrote that production companies are “lining up to make the torn-from-the-headlines blockbuster movie about Comey’s life and his attempt to unseat the president.”
A movie agent spoke to Oppenheimer in the article and said that it’s not far-fetched to envision a movie about Comey’s life in the distant future…his story is so unprecedented an unique.
