Shawn Boburg

The Record

This story was originally published in May 2013.

He could be the country’s next top crime fighter, overseeing investigations into the most serious threats facing the nation.

But James Comey — President Obama’s pick to be the director of the FBI — got an unwelcomed introduction to law and order as a teenager in Allendale more than 35 years ago, during a brief and dangerous brush with a notorious criminal who had all of Bergen County on edge.

A man dubbed “the Ramsey rapist” held 15-year-old Comey and his younger brother at gunpoint after breaking into their Allendale home on an October day in 1977, one of a string of break-ins that included the rape of two area baby sitters. The Comey brothers, locked in a bathroom while the intruder searched the home, escaped through a window, only to encounter the man again on their lawn. The brothers ran back inside the house, locked the doors and called police, setting off a massive manhunt.

In the decades since that episode, which Comey has said taught him important lessons about crime’s psychological toll on victims, the Northern Highlands Regional High School graduate has earned a reputation as a tough, but ethical, federal prosecutor and a Department of Justice attorney brave enough to stand up to political pressure from the White House.

On Thursday, a day after news of his expected nomination to succeed Robert Mueller, he earned praise from Republican Governor Christie, as well as politicians on both sides of the aisle, and former colleagues from his days as a U.S. attorney in Manhattan. And the plaudits were echoed locally, where the Comey family was known as “one of the best families in Allendale,” the mayor of that borough said.

Comey, 52, who now lives in Connecticut, would need Senate confirmation. He is certain to face tough questions about his work as a counsel for a major hedge fund and his ties to Wall Street as well as how he would handle current, high-profile FBI investigations.

But Republicans and Democrats said his strong credentials and sterling reputation suggest his path to confirmation should be relatively smooth. Comey, a Republican who served as a deputy under former Attorney General John Ashcroft, has also been lauded for his refusal to reauthorize the Bush administration’s controversial wiretapping program while he was filling in for Ashcroft, who was in the hospital at the time.

“Jim Comey was an outstanding U.S. attorney and served as deputy attorney general with distinction,” Christie, a former U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said in a statement on Thursday. “I have never served with anyone with greater integrity or a better sense of the unique obligations and opportunities presented by true public service. The FBI and America would once again be well served by his strong and honest leadership.”

Christie, who said he consulted with Comey regularly when they were federal prosecutors, has publicly referred to advice Comey gave him in 2003. Christie said Comey told him: “It’s harder to hate up close.” Christie has said that guidance prompted him to talk to teachers directly to convince them of his controversial ideas on education and pension reforms.

Comey, who also has private-sector experience that includes serving as general counsel for the military contractor Lockheed Martin and the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, did not return calls seeking comment on Thursday.

But his younger brother, Peter Comey, who was in the house with James the day of the home invasion, said he was not surprised by news of the nomination. He said his brother was right for the job.

“He has an extremely strong and beneficial moral compass,” said Peter Comey, who is one of four siblings and now lives in Virginia. “He knows right from wrong. And he looks at things in a very circumspect way.”

In 2006, Comey, a married father of five children, told a reporter that, although he was not hurt in the home invasion during his childhood, it gave him insight into the psychological pain that victims feel. No one was ever prosecuted for the crime.

Allendale Mayor Vince Barra said the Comeys were heavily engaged in the civic duties and were active at Guardian Angel Roman Catholic Church.

J. Brien Comey, James’ father, now in his early 80s, still lives in the same home the family moved into in the early 1970s, even though all four of his children live elsewhere.

A retired real estate executive, J. Brien Comey was an Allendale councilman in the mid- and late-1980s. His wife, Joan, who died last year after a long illness, was involved in the Girl Scouts and many other local organizations, Barra said.

“They were involved in everything from Scouts to the church to ... you name it,” Barra said. “They were a huge part of Allendale. The parents had a strong sense of integrity, they were hardworking, and they believed in public service. That’s where James got it from. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Walter Arsenault, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office who worked with Comey when he was a U.S. attorney in New York, called him “a smart guy, a hard worker whose integrity is beyond reproach.”

But Comey is certain to face tough questions from senators about his work as an attorney for Bridgewater Associates.

“If he’s nominated, he would have to answer questions about his recent work in the hedge fund industry,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “The administration’s efforts to criminally prosecute Wall Street for its part in the economic downturn have been abysmal, and his agency would have to help build the case against some of his colleagues in this lucrative industry.”

If confirmed, Comey would serve a 10-year tenure overseeing an organization responsible for both intelligence and law enforcement with more than 36,000 employees.

Comey would be coming into the FBI at a critical time, with the agency conducting a politically sensitive investigation of the Internal Revenue Service and an investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings, which have raised some doubts about the FBI’s ability to prevent terrorist attacks.

In addition, it is the FBI that is carrying out the Justice Department’s aggressive use of subpoenas and in at least one instance, a search warrant, to gather the phone records and emails of some journalists. The aggressive stance has triggered an outcry from the news media and members of Congress from both parties.

The Obama administration’s actions in the war on terror have drawn scrutiny in Congress as well and are likely to be raised at any confirmation hearing.

Comey became a hero to Democrats for the central role he played in holding up Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, one of the administration’s great controversies and an episode that focused attention on the administration’s controversial tactics in the war against terrorism.

In dramatic testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2007, Comey said he thought Bush’s no-warrant wiretapping program was so questionable that he refused for a time to reauthorize it, leading to a standoff with White House officials at the hospital bedside of an ailing Ashcroft.

Comey said he refused to recertify the program because Ashcroft had reservations about its legality.

Comey was deputy attorney general in 2005 when he unsuccessfully tried to limit tough interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists. He told then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that some of the practices were wrong and would damage the department’s reputation.

This article contains material from The Associated Press.