James Comey won't take full-time job before 2020 election because he wants 'to be free to speak'

Since being fired by President Donald Trump as FBI director, James Comey has used his platform to become a leading voice of the so-called "resistance" by routinely criticizing the president.

On Monday, Comey revealed that he will continue to speak out ahead of the 2020 presidential election in lieu of seeking full-time employment, presumably to continue his anti-Trump campaign.

"We're in a weird state now because I won't commit to anything full time until next year's election because I need to be free to speak, so I'm in a little bit of a state of suspended animation," Comey said, the Washington Examiner reported.

"I can't go lead a nonprofit or take a prominent position somewhere else, because I need to be able to speak," he added.

Comey's comments came during a discussion with CNN legal analyst Josh Campbell, who worked directly with Comey at the FBI as his special assistant. Their discussion was at an event launching Campbell's new book "Crossfire Hurricane: Inside Donald Trump's War on the FBI."

However, ahead of the release of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report detailing his investigation into FISA abuse, Comey has several problems of his own.

Comey stands accused of running a "covert operation" against Trump that may have included misleading the FISA court in order to obtain surveillance warrants against Trump campaign aide Carter Page over suspicions the campaign was colluding with Russia.

The former FBI director has also been criticized for keeping memos detailing his conversations with Trump, then later giving them to a friend to leak to the media. The inspector general said Comey's actions set a "dangerous example."

Some top Republicans, like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), believe Comey engaged in criminal activity and predict Comey will be soon indicted for his role in what many, including McCarthy, characterize as an attempted "coup" to remove Trump from office.

Comey, however, disagrees with such predictions.

"I keep seeing that I'm going to be indicted, which they said over and over again for the last two years. I'm highly confident that's not true. So then they'll just move on, making other stuff up after that peters out," he said Monday.