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Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty Wednesday on charges of lying to Congress after President Donald Trump pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political enemies.
U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff set his trial date for Jan. 5, although Comey’s legal team expressed a desire to avoid a trial completely.
The ex-FBI chief showed up early to his arraignment in federal court to make his plea as a small group of supporters held signs outside.
“SHOW TRIAL,” read one. “TRUMPED UP CHARGES,” read another.
Comey has been a target of Trump’s ire since his first administration, when the FBI director launched an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion on the part of Trump’s campaign.
The charges against him stem from a congressional hearing held in September 2020; his indictment came just days before the five-year statute of limitations was set to run out.
Comey is accused of lying when he said he stood by earlier testimony, given in 2017, about whether he “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports.”
Prosecutors allege that he actually had authorized a leak to news outlets, although charging documents do not reveal the outlets in question or what the leak pertained to. It is believed — in a bizarre twist of fate — to relate to the FBI probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server, which Trump had seized on in the waning days of the 2016 presidential election to attack his opponent.
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Comey’s lawyer told the judge Wednesday that their team had still not been given those precise details, according to The New York Times.
Trump has cheered the indictment as a supposed victory for justice, although the case is widely considered to be a flimsy one.
The Justice Department reportedly forced out U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert after he told his bosses that the case against Comey was weak. Seibert was replaced by White House adviser Lindsey Halligan, who has no prior experience as a prosecutor.
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