Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not responsible Wednesday on prices of mendacity to Congress after President Donald Trump pressured Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi to prosecute his political enemies.
U.S. District Choose Michael Nachmanoff set his trial date for Jan. 5, though Comey’s authorized staff expressed a need to keep away from a trial utterly.
The ex-FBI chief confirmed up early to the Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse to make his plea as a small group of supporters held indicators exterior.
“SHOW TRIAL,” learn one. “TRUMPED UP CHARGES,” learn one other.
Whereas members of his household had been noticed on the courthouse entrance, Comey was capable of enter and exit by way of an unseen door.
Comey has been a goal of Trump’s ire since his first administration, when the FBI director launched an investigation into Russian interference within the 2016 election and potential collusion on the a part of Trump’s marketing campaign.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS through Getty Photographs
The costs towards him stem from a congressional listening to held in September 2020; his indictment got here simply days earlier than the five-year statute of limitations was set to expire.
Comey is accused of mendacity when he mentioned he stood by earlier testimony, given in 2017, about whether or not he “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports.”
Prosecutors allege that he really had licensed a leak to information shops, though charging paperwork don’t reveal the shops in query or what the leak pertained to. It’s believed — in a weird accident — to narrate to the FBI probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s non-public e mail server, which Trump had seized on within the waning days of the 2016 presidential election to assault his opponent.
Eric Lee/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs
Comey’s lawyer advised the choose Wednesday that their staff had nonetheless not been given these exact particulars, in accordance with The New York Instances.
Trump has cheered the indictment as a supposed victory for justice, though the case is broadly thought-about to be a flimsy one.
The Justice Division reportedly pressured out U.S. Lawyer for the Japanese District of Virginia Erik Siebert after he advised his bosses that the case towards Comey was weak. Seibert was changed by White Home adviser Lindsey Halligan, who has no prior expertise as a prosecutor.
Comey’s legal professionals signaled they’ll transfer to dismiss the case by arguing that Halligan’s appointment was not technically legitimate, per The New York Instances.
One other particular person, an FBI agent, was reportedly fired for refusing to stage a extremely publicized “perp walk” for Comey final month.
Prosecutors who’ve been concerned within the Comey investigation decided {that a} key witness would possible show detrimental to the case if it had been tried in courtroom, in accordance with ABC Information. Sources advised the outlet that Daniel Richman, a regulation professor, is the person Comey supposedly advised to talk to the press, however Richman says Comey by no means did such a factor.
Comey maintains his innocence.
“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way,” he mentioned in a video after his indictment.
“We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either. Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant, and she’s right, but I’m not afraid, and I hope you’re not either,” he mentioned. “I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does.”
