Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from congressional testimony he gave five years ago, appearing in court for an arraignment Wednesday after the Justice Department criminally charged the ex-FBI chief and Trump foe in late September.
The proceeding at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, came nearly two weeks after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation when he testified before a Senate panel in September 2020.
Comey spoke during the proceedings Wednesday. When the judge asked whether he understood the charges, he replied, “I do, your honor, thank you very much.” Prosecutors did not seek to have him detained, and Comey was released on his own recognizance.
U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, who is presiding over the case, set a trial date for early January, though that could change. Comey will seek to have the indictment dismissed before a trial, his lawyer said..
During the arraignment, Nathaniel Lemons, one of the federal prosecutors brought on to work on the case, said it could involve classified information, which could bring complications. Nachmanoff, however, noted that only two charges have been brought against Comey.
“The government is going to be under an extraordinary amount of pressure” to produce classified documents or declassify them, Nachmanoff said. “There should be no reason this case gets off track.”
Patrick Fitzgerald, Comey’s lawyer, told the court that they “see this as a simple case.”
Prosecutors estimated a trial will take two to three days, though Fitzgerald said he would seek to have the case dismissed on several grounds: vindictive and unlawful prosecution, and the legality of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan’s appointment to that role.
Mr. Trump announced last month that he had selected Halligan to temporarily lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia after the abrupt departure of Erik Siebert from the post.
Siebert had been kept on as the top prosecutor for the office by the judges on the federal district court for the Eastern District of Virginia in May. Because of the involvement of judges in that district in extending Siebert’s tenure as U.S. attorney, the challenge to Halligan’s appointment will be heard by other judges outside the district.
Comey has said he’s innocent and, in a video after he was indicted, declared “let’s have a trial.” His wife, Patrice, and daughter, Maurene, a former prosecutor in New York, were in the courtroom for the proceeding. Maurene Comey was fired from the Justice Department in July and has since sued the Trump administration over her ouster.
The Justice Department’s prosecution of the former FBI director marked a significant escalation in President Trump’s efforts to go after his political foes. Mr. Trump has for years attacked Comey, who was FBI director when the bureau investigated Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Days before Comey was indicted, the president took to social media to urge Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against the former FBI director and other political opponents, writing, “We can’t delay any longer.”
More on Comey’s arraignment
The arraignment took place in open court, but cameras were not allowed.
Comey’s lawyer said his team would file several motions to have the charges dismissed, including alleging the former FBI director is a victim of vindictive prosecution and arguing the U.S. attorney who brought the charges, Halligan, was appointed invalidly.
“Patrick Fitzgerald is a hell of a lawyer, and I would not want to pre-guess what strategy he’s going to follow here,” said Mitchell Epner, a partner at the New York law firm Kudman Trachten Aloe Posner.
Where did Comey’s arraignment take place?
Comey was arraigned at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, which is part of the Eastern District of Virginia. The case is likely being heard there because the charges are based on a 2020 Senate hearing that Comey attended remotely from his Virginia home.
If the case goes to trial, Comey will face a jury pool made up of residents of the Washington, D.C., suburbs — an area that generally disfavors President Trump.
Some 62.6% of voters in the eastern district’s Alexandria division voted for Democrat Kamala Harris last year, and 34.1% voted for Mr. Trump. The division includes Alexandria and several other cities and counties in Northern Virginia.
Who is the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan?
The case against Comey is being overseen by Lindsey Halligan, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who was sworn into the role just days before Comey was indicted.
A former Florida insurance lawyer, Halligan previously worked as a personal attorney to Mr. Trump, and was part of his defense team in a federal case accusing him of mishandling classified documents. More recently, Halligan worked as a White House aide.
She took over the office after the resignation of former acting U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert.
In an unusual move, Halligan has handled parts of the prosecution herself so far. She personally signed Comey’s indictment and appeared in court when the grand jury returned the indictment.
Two assistant U.S. attorneys from the Eastern District of North Carolina were added to the case Tuesday: Gabriel Diaz and Nathaniel Lemons.
Who is Comey’s attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald?
Comey is being represented by Fitzgerald, a well-known attorney who retired as a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in 2023.
Fitzgerald was named special counsel in George W. Bush’s administration, to investigate a 2003 leak that revealed the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. He also served as U.S. attorney in Chicago for more than a decade, overseeing the prosecution of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Who is Judge Nachmanoff?
Nachmanoff was assigned to oversee Comey’s case. He was nominated to the federal bench by former President Joe Biden in 2021 and confirmed by the Senate in a 52-46 vote. Three Republicans joined all Democrats in voting yes: Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Nachmanoff previously worked in the district as a public defender and magistrate judge. While in the latter role, he oversaw the 2019 arraignment of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two players in Mr. Trump’s first impeachment who were charged with campaign finance violations.
Mr. Trump has attacked Nachmanoff, writing on Truth Social that Comey “was just assigned a Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge, so he’s off to a very good start.”
What is Comey charged with?
The first count accuses him of making a false statement in a September 2020 Senate hearing.
Prosecutors allege Comey falsely asserted he had never authorized an FBI staffer to serve as an anonymous source in news reports about the bureau’s 2016 investigations into Hillary Clinton. In a testy back-and-forth five years ago, Comey told Republican Sen. Ted Cruz that he stood by testimony he gave in 2017 in which he said he didn’t approve any anonymous sources.
The indictment does not explain the substance of the alleged leak or specify which FBI staffer Comey is accused of giving permission to leak.
Cruz’s questions focused on an incident in which Comey and his onetime deputy, Andrew McCabe, gave inconsistent stories about a 2016 Wall Street Journal article on one of the FBI’s Clinton probes. McCabe said he told Comey after the story came out that McCabe had authorized staffers to talk to the Journal, but Comey says McCabe told him no such thing. The Justice Department’s internal watchdog sided with Comey and found McCabe lacked candor.
In a recent CNN interview, McCabe said he hasn’t been approached by the FBI in connection with the Comey probe and doubted the indictment was about him, noting that he didn’t ask Comey for permission to release information to the media because he didn’t need permission.
Comey has also been probed by the Justice Department’s watchdog for releasing memos on his interactions with Mr. Trump to his friend, Daniel Richman, who shared their contents to the New York Times. The watchdog found Comey violated FBI policies but didn’t leak classified material.
The second count against Comey accuses him of obstructing a congressional proceeding by “making false and misleading statements” in the same 2020 hearing.
And in a rare move, the grand jury declined to indict him on an additional count of lying to Congress in the 2020 hearing, relating to testimony Comey gave lawmakers that he didn’t remember getting a tip from the intelligence community referring to Hillary Clinton and Mr. Trump.
Many critics believe the Comey indictment is the result of Mr. Trump’s determination to punish a longtime political foe. The president fired Comey in 2017, and the two have traded barbs since then. Mr. Trump publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into Comey before he was charged, and the president celebrated the indictment shortly after it was handed down.
Before Comey was charged, some staff in the Office of the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia circulated a memo arguing charges should not be brought, a Justice Department source familiar with the matter told CBS News.
The Justice Department has defended its handling of the case. After Comey was indicted, Bondi said in a statement the move “reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people.”
Pat Milton and
contributed to this report.
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