• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3914350/Besieged-FBI-director-James-Comey-lived-like-king-one-America-s-wealthiest-towns-home-Martha-Stewart-Paul-Newman-Harvey-Weinstein-t-unload-3-million-estate.html
  • James Comey was a hedge fund high roller when he lived with his family in the tony enclave of Westport, Connecticut until he was tapped to run the FBI in 2013
  • Comey bought the estate on more than three acres not far from where Martha Stewart used to live for $3,050,000 in August 2010 
  • But now he's had to reduce the price four times - down to $2.5 million and he still doesn't have a buyer for the palatial estate
  • It's a seven bedroom, nine bath, 7,157 square foot gated home in one of Connecticut's ritziest Gold Coast towns
  • Residents of the neighborhood over the years included such powerful, moneyed Democrat neighbors as Stewart and Harvey Weinstein
  • Comey, who has a net worth of $11 million, lived like a king during the six years he spent at the Connecticut home 
  • When he bought the home, he had been hired as general counsel by the Westport-headquartered $150 billion hedge fund Bridgewater Associates 

By CAROLINE HOWE 

PUBLISHED: 13:00 BST, 8 November 2016 | 

Before he became FBI director, James Comey lived the Gold Coast high-life in Connecticut as a hedge fund high-roller.

Now the besieged Comey - under fire for his surprise letters to Congress about Hillary Clinton's controversial emails that have thrown the presidential election into chaos - is about to take another hit, this time on his palatial $3 million-plus home.

Comey bought the estate on more than three acres not far from where Martha Stewart used to live in ritzy Westport, Connecticut, for $3,050,000 in August 2010.

He's now had to reduce the price four times down to $2.5 million and he still doesn't have a buyer for the palatial estate. 

Comey, who has a net worth of $11 million, lived like a king during the six years he spent at the Connecticut home.

It's a seven bedroom, nine bath, 7,157 square foot gated home in one of Connecticut's ritziest Gold Coast towns, Westport, whose white sandy beaches line Long Island sound and whose residents have included such powerful, moneyed Democrat neighbors over the years as Stewart.

Stewart's former Turkey Hill estate - which she sold in 2007 - is just a hop skip and a jump from Comey's sprawling 3.17 acres. 

Comey prosecuted and sent Stewart to prison in 2004 for insider stock trading.

There's Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who in October co-produced a star-studded Broadway fundraiser for Hillary Clinton with tickets going for as much as ten thousand dollars each. 

Among other Democrat elites who lived in Westport was the late film star Paul Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward, both big supporters of Bill Clinton when he was the controversial commander-in-chief. 

Another more recent neighbor of Comey was the businessman and philanthropist Rajat Gupta who was convicted in 2012 on insider trading charges, like Stewart.

Comey, 56, put his estate on Westway Road in Westport's exclusive Greens Farms up for sale in June 2015 for $3,395,000, two years after President Barack Obama appointed him to head the FBI.

Now he has it on the market for what some consider a fire sale price of $2.5 million - he dropped the price another $245,000, which was the fourth drop since he originally listed the house.

'Jim's desperate to sell and he 's practically giving the place away', says a Westport real estate insider. 'But the market's slow and buyers for a fancy mansion like that are hard to find.'

The exclusive listing by Barbara Bross, one of Westport's most prominent real estate agents, bills the FBI boss's property as a 'magnificent' home.

According to Zillow, the house, built in 2005, is on a 'gated park-like property with rolling emerald lawns, terraces and gorgeous gunite pool/waterfall spa'.

'This custom home showcases the amenities and upgrades that discerning buyers anticipate'.

According to the listing, each of the seven bedrooms has an en suite full bath and walk-in closet, and there's even a wine cellar.

According to public records, the real estate tax on the house for 2016-2017 is $31,798, or $2,650 a month.

If Comey can't sell and decides to rent, the monthly rental is estimated at more than $12,000.

The 6ft, 8in, Comey, a father of five, bought the ritzy estate in Westport, which has a majority of democrat voters who, according to a GOP town official 'vote the party line', in 2010. 

At the time, he had been hired as general counsel by the Westport-headquartered $150 billion hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, once described by the New Yorker as the 'world's richest and strangest hedge fund'.

Politico once reported that Comey appeared in a Bridgewater video sporting a cashmere sweater talking about accountability and transparency.

Previously, Comey had been deputy attorney general at the Justice Department in the George W Bush administration, and besides former Westporter Martha Stewart, he had prosecuted the likes of Mafia boss John James Gambino. 

When he was nominated to head the FBI, he reported a net worth of more than $11 million, according to documents he filed with the Senate Judiciary committee overseeing his confirmation. 

He reportedly had a stock portfolio valued at $5 million, and his shares included Exxon Mobile, Verizon Communications and Hormel Foods.

When he left Bridgewater he was handed more than $3 million in profit sharing from the time he spent there, from September 2010 to January 2016.

He met his wife, Patrice, at William and Mary College, and they were married in 1987.

They had six kids, but lost an infant, a nine-day-old son, Collin, in 1995 from a strep infection, according to press reports.

The Comeys sent two of their children to one of the most prestigious private schools on the east coast, Greens Farms Academy in Westport – a stone's throw from their home, and the same school where Martha Stewart sent her daughter, Lexi.

At the school's 90th commencement in June 2015, the FBI director gave the keynote address, as a suspicious drone flew overhead. He said it didn't belong to the bureau. 

He told the graduates that one of the four keys to success was 'effective communications' - ironically, one of the areas he's being most criticized for today by the Clinton and Trump teams.