Getty James Comey holds hands with his wife, Patrice Failor.
James Comey’s wife, Patrice Failor, was his college sweetheart, and Comey revealed that Failor and his daughters voted for Hillary Clinton and participated in the march on Washington D.C. after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Patrice Failor said she was “devastated” when Hillary Clinton lost.
Comey has unleashed his feelings against Trump in a new book that he is pushing, calling him an unethical liar among other things. Trump retorted that James Comey was an “untruthful slime ball” and leaker. That has a lot of people wondering about James Comey’s family, which includes his wife and a large family of six children.
“His wife and daughters voted for Clinton and even participated in the Women’s March, held the day after the inauguration in Washington,” ABC News reported that Comey wrote in his book.
“I wanted a woman president really badly, and I supported Hillary Clinton. A lot of my friends worked for her. And I was devastated when she lost,” Patrice told ABC News, adding that she was disappointed when Clinton criticized her husband, adding, “I still wanted her to win. And I have a bias. I know I have a bias, ’cause I love my husband and I trust him.”
Patrice Comey: “I wanted a woman president really badly, and I had supported Hillary Clinton. A lot of my friends worked for her. And I was devastated when she lost.” t.co/xI0J2niwaE #Comey
However, she added of Clinton, “I just can’t even imagine the pain she’s gone through. I cried Election Day. I went on the Women’s March the day after the inauguration. And I’m hoping for a woman in 2020.”
Here’s what you need to know:
1. James Comey & Patrice Failor Met in College & He’s Said He ‘Married Up’
A photo including members of the Comey family. (Facebook/Claire Comey)
The ousted FBI Director James Comey‘s wife was his college sweetheart, and they’ve weathered family tragedy together while raising a large family. (Comey’s wife is known as Patrice Comey and sometimes as Patrice Failor). She met her future husband in college, and they have been married since 1987.
According to the Daily Press, both Patrice and James Comey attended William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia, meeting in 1978 as freshmen. When he was nominated to be Barack Obama’s FBI Director in 2013, WestportNOW said, Comey “paid tribute to his wife,” saying:
Nearly everything I am and have done in my adult life is due to the great good fortune of marrying up.
In 2011, the William and Mary Law School named Comey the Carter O. Lowance Fellow, which is one of the law school’s highest honors, the Daily Press said. The news site called the Comeys “a William and Mary family” and said that, in addition to attending the school, Patrice Comey worked in Student Affairs. James Comey graduated in the class of 1982.
Patrice Comey is second from left. (Facebook/Claire Comey)
On Mother’s Day 2017, Patrice and James Comey appeared in public together at a musical. According to BroadwayWorld.com, the musical, called Fun Home, is “about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.”
Today James Comey and his wife Patrice joined us at #FunHome in Washington, D.C.
James Comey was a chemistry and religion major at William and Mary. Before becoming President Barack Obama’s FBI director, he served as a U.S. deputy attorney general for George W. Bush and taught at Columbia University, said Williamsburg Yorktown Daily.
2. James Comey & His Wife Had Six Children Together But Lost an Infant to a Treatable Infection
Maurene Comey (now Ryan). (Facebook/Maurene Ryan)
The Comeys have dealt with a heat-wrenching family tragedy together. In 1995, Patrice and James Comey lost their 9-day-old son, Collin, after he died from a Group B strep infection, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Patrice Comey wrote a lengthy op-ed column describing the boy’s death and “lobbied in support of screening for the bacteria during pregnancy,” the newspaper said.
In the column, Patrice Comey wrote,
MY BABY DIED a month ago today. He was nine days old. Collin Edward Comey was killed by a preventable infection. I am sharing our tragedy so other mothers’ babies might be saved.
She wrote that the family was happily anticipating Collin’s birth for months. At that time, the couple had two daughters and another son, born 16 months apart from Collin, and the family expected the two boys would become “buddies.”
The kids prayed for him and kissed my tummy good night before being tucked in each night. They helped me prepare Collin’s baby clothes…
Collin was born Aug. 4, 2005. He weighted 7 pounds, 6 ounces.
My husband, Jim, and I went to the hospital…I cherish the memories of that day. We each held, kissed and loved Collin.
However, that night, Collin’s breathing grew labored, and he stopped nursing well. Shortly, he was sent to intensive care on a respirator. It’s believed he contracted the bacterial infection in the birth canal; he died in Patrice’s arms as she sang him lullabies.
Patrice Comey said she was writing the column in the Baltimore Sun newspaper because the bacterial infection is common yet treatable, and she wanted to help prevent other tragedies. A screening test for it costs $40 or less, she wrote.
The couple’s surviving children are Abby, Claire, Brien, Kate and Maurene. The couple’s daughter, Maurene, also attended William and Mary and then Harvard Law School, the Daily Press said.
3. Patrice Comey Grew Up in Northern Virginia & Supported Hillary Clinton
James Comey prepares to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee on Capitol Hill on July 14, 2016. (Getty)
In his interview with James Comey on April 15, 2018, George Stephanopoulos stated to Comey: “your wife, Patrice, Hillary Clinton supporter.”
James Comey responded, according to ABC’s transcript of the interview, “Oh yeah. And– and the– the– I didn’t take a poll among all the kids, but I’m pretty sure that at least my four daughters, probably all five of my kids, wanted Hillary Clinton to be the first woman president. I know my amazing spouse did. My)– my wife and girls marched in the women’s march the day after President Trump’s inauguration. There was a lotta passion in this house for Hillary Clinton. And I– I get that. But again, I hope it illustrates to people that I really wasn’t making decisions based on political fortunes.”
Patrice Failor confirmed that during the interview.
James Comey further revealed to ABC of his decisions over the Hillary Clinton email investigation, “she knew enough, Patrice, the pain that I was in that– and how hard these decisions were that I don’t think she spent a lotta time– I think she got actually where I was. I d– she didn’t spend– she expressed frustration.”
“She hated the fact that I had to make these decisions, and ’cause she loves me dearly, she hated the fact that I personally was stepping in front of the institutions to get shot repeatedly. She would say, “Look, I get what you’re doing. I get that you’re trying to protect the institutions.”
Some of James Comey’s critics leapt on the revelation on social media.
@Comey wife & daughters march in Woman’s pussycat march day after inauguration! But he’s not political my as$ !
Patrice Failor has had to sacrifice for her husband’s career, but she drew the line at New York, which she didn’t like, James Comey has revealed in previous interviews. “My wife wasn’t digging New York,” James Comey told New York Magazine.
James Comey told the magazine the family decided to move to northern Virginia because “We wanted to live in a place where we’d both be happier raising our kids.” Patrice Comey grew up in northern Virginia, and in Iowa, and the couple both “liked Richmond as a place to live.”
For a time, James Comey worked in Virginia as a corporate lawyer before becoming an assistant U.S. attorney after his conscience was bothered by a case involving asbestos-related injuries that he’d worked on. They ended up moving back to New York for a time when he was appointed U.S. Attorney there, and he says to New York Magazine that his wife came around to liking it after a trip along the Hudson River. Then, of course, he was named FBI director.
Comey also said that his wife didn’t have security clearance to learn everything that was going on but perceived that he was under great stress. “And she said to me one evening, ‘Don’t be the torture guy.’ And I said, ‘Wha — you know I can’t talk to you about that kinda stuff.’ And she said, ‘I don’t wanna talk about it. Just don’t be the torture guy,'” he told ABC News.
4. Patrice Comey Works With Juveniles & Has Been a Foster Mother
Claire and Abby Comey. (Facebook/Claire Comey)
Patrice Failor has been a child advocate and she has worked in the criminal justice system in her own way. In March 2016, Patrice Comey testified before the legislative Judiciary Committee in support of a bill that would allow unpaid volunteers to counsel children through the juvenile justice system, said ctpost.
The newspaper said that Patrice was accompanied by her husband and an FBI security detail; Patrice Comey is a former Bridgeport Superior Court volunteer. She said:
Every foster child in this great state gets a lawyer. These lawyers each has up to 100 cases, but once they have a case they’re to express the best interests of the child in court. And if the lawyer or the judge or anyone feels that what the child wants is in conflict with their best…then he can ask for an advocate for the child separate.
Ctpost said the bill would create a program so that judges could appoint special advocates in juvenile court. On Facebook, Patrice Comey, in 2014, wrote: “I am a foster parent, have served as a guardian ad litem for foster kids and work with aging out foster kids in my community.”
5. Comey Broke a Dinner Date With His Wife to Dine With Trump & The Comeys Have a Net Worth of at Least $11 Million
US President Barack Obama arrives alongside new FBI Director James Comey (2nd R), Comey’s wife, Patrice Failor (R), and FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce (L) during an installation ceremony at FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, October 28, 2013. (Getty)
James Comey has joked that he once broke a dinner date with his wife to dine with Donald Trump. “Comey explained that he had to break a date with his wife in to attend the meeting. Comey then joked that, in retrospect, ‘I love spending time with my wife—I wish I had been there that night,'” Newsweek reported.
The Comeys are a wealthy family, largely because of James Comey’s career. James Comey’s net worth was disclosed when he was nominated to be FBI director, and his net worth was put at a minimum of $11 million.
In the disclosure to the Senate confirmation committee, it was revealed that James Comey stood to receive $3 million in a hedge fund profit-sharing payout. He and Patrice had $5 million in stocks, including investments in Exxon Mobile, Hormel Foods, Berkshire Hathaway, and other companies.
They owned a $3 million home in Westport, Connecticut.