--- title: James Comey Revealed His Secret Twitter Account description: The former FBI Director posted a photo of himself in Iowa on Monday, admitting that a secret Twitter account was his canonical: https://time.com/4994394/james-comey-secret-twitter-account-reinhold-niebuhr-formerbu/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-23T23:19:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T11:20:13.887Z article:section: Politics og:title: James Comey Just Revealed His Secret Twitter Account og:description: The former FBI Director posted a photo of himself in Iowa og:url: https://time.com/4994394/james-comey-secret-twitter-account-reinhold-niebuhr-formerbu/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59ddfd2e6ca0a037/6988e311096a9423b56a021d/james-comey-fbi-twitter-account.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3240 og:image:height: 1823 og:image:alt: Former FBI Director James Comey Testifies on Capitol Hill og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: James Comey Just Revealed His Secret Twitter Account twitter:description: The former FBI Director posted a photo of himself in Iowa twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59ddfd2e6ca0a037/6988e311096a9423b56a021d/james-comey-fbi-twitter-account.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # James Comey Just Revealed His Secret Twitter Account > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=39b6d04e-239e-467c-97a1-0d564db0d143&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Oct 23, 2017 11:19 PM UTC  Former FBI Director James Comey was sworn in before he testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on his past relationship with President Donald Trump, and his role in the Russian interference investigation, in the Senate Hart building on Capitol Hill, on June 8, 2017. Former FBI Director James Comey was sworn in before he testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on his past relationship with President Donald Trump, and his role in the Russian interference investigation, in the Senate Hart building on Capitol Hill, on June 8, 2017. Cheriss May—NurPhoto/Getty Images by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Oct 23, 2017 11:19 PM UTC Former FBI Director [James Comey](http://time.com/collection/2017-time-100/4736327/james-comey/?iid=sr-link2) put an end to months of speculation when he revealed his secret Twitter account on Monday. “Goodbye Iowa. On the road home. Gotta get back to writing,” he wrote in a Tweet that featured a photo of him standing on an empty road. “Will try to tweet in useful ways.” > [](https://twitter.com/FormerBu/status/922486295611371526) After the tweet, Benjamin Wittes, the editor in chief of Lawfare and [a friend of the former FBI director](http://time.com/4786351/james-comey-president-trump-hug-disgusted/?iid=sr-link3), confirmed the Twitter account does indeed belong to Comey. > [](https://twitter.com/benjaminwittes/status/922487180756385793) Comey has mostly stayed out of the public eye since President Donald Trump [fired him in May](http://time.com/4773873/james-comey-fired-whats-next/) amid an investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. He emerged to [testify before Congress](http://time.com/4810345/james-comey-testimony-real-time-transcript/?iid=sr-link4) about the investigation, but has otherwise kept a low profile. But the former FBI director has sent other tweets from this account, which now uses the handle @FormerBu and the name “Reinhold Niebuhr.” In March, [Gizmodo reported](https://gizmodo.com/this-is-almost-certainly-james-comey-s-twitter-account-1793843641) that Comey was using Twitter under the handle @projectexile7. His recent tweets include photos of [West Point](https://twitter.com/FormerBu/status/920783485413060608), [Gettysburg](https://twitter.com/FormerBu/status/921078863949631489) and [Iowa](https://twitter.com/FormerBu/status/922152286981300224), where he wrote that he was thinking about “Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer,” which asks God to grant serenity for things one cannot change. > [](https://twitter.com/FormerBu/status/922152286981300224) Comey is also [writing a book](http://time.com/4884130/james-comey-book-deal/?iid=sr-link1) about leadership and “yet-unheard anecdotes” from his career, set to come out in the spring of 2018. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4994394/james-comey-secret-twitter-account-reinhold-niebuhr-formerbu/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4994394/james-comey-secret-twitter-account-reinhold-niebuhr-formerbu/"},"headline":"James Comey Just Revealed His Secret Twitter Account","datePublished":"2017-10-23T23:19:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T11:20:13.887Z","description":"The former FBI Director posted a photo of himself in Iowa on Monday","url":"https://time.com/4994394/james-comey-secret-twitter-account-reinhold-niebuhr-formerbu/","keywords":["James Comey","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59ddfd2e6ca0a037/6988e311096a9423b56a021d/james-comey-fbi-twitter-account.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59ddfd2e6ca0a037/6988e311096a9423b56a021d/james-comey-fbi-twitter-account.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Former FBI Director James Comey Testifies on Capitol Hill","caption":"Former FBI Director James Comey Testifies on Capitol Hill","creditText":"Cheriss May—NurPhoto/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/james-comey/","name":"James Comey"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4994394/james-comey-secret-twitter-account-reinhold-niebuhr-formerbu/","name":"James Comey Just Revealed His Secret Twitter Account"}}]}] ```