James Comey, the former FBI director who was abruptly fired in May, has seemingly revealed himself as Twitter user Reinhold Niebuhr.
In March, the account tweeted out the famous Anchorman meme — “Actually, I’m not even mad. That’s amazing!” — alongside a link to the FBI’s jobs website.
But how did anyone know to look at such a random and seemingly inconspicuous handle?
Also in March, Gizmodo’s Ashley Feinberg conducted her own social media investigation, and with the help of Instagram’s recommendation algorithm, narrowed down that Reinhold Niebuhr was ‘almost certainly James Comey’s Twitter account.’
But none of this is a confirmation.
Yesterday, however, the Reinhold Niebuhr account tweeted a picture of James Comey:
Goodbye Iowa. On the road home. Gotta get back to writing. Will try to tweet in useful ways. pic.twitter.com/DCbu3Yvqt3
Techcrunch eventJoin 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025
Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444.
Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025
Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444.
San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025— James Comey (@Comey) October 23, 2017
Shortly thereafter, Comey’s friend and Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes confirmed that the mysterious Twitter account does indeed belong to the former FBI director:
https://twitter.com/benjaminwittes/status/922487180756385793
Since joining in February 2014, Comey’s account has tweeted six times and amassed more than 100k followers.
