Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to criminal charges of making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation, in the Justice Department's first criminal prosecution of a political opponent of US President Donald Trump.
The indictment was filed by Trump's former personal lawyer, Lindsay Halligan, who was appointed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia last month after Trump fired her predecessor for his reluctance to prosecute Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff of the Eastern District of Virginia scheduled the trial to begin on January 5.
Comey's attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, entered a not guilty plea on behalf of his client during the hearing, which lasted about 25 minutes.
"Our position is that this prosecution was initiated at the direct order of President Trump," Fitzgerald said.
Comey, who appeared in court in Alexandria, Virginia, is accused of knowingly making a false statement when he told a Republican senator during a 2020 hearing that he still stood by his earlier testimony in which he denied giving anyone permission to be an anonymous source in media reports about FBI investigations.
The indictment alleges that Comey authorized an FBI employee to disclose information about a federal investigation. It does not specify which investigation is in question, but it appears to be related to Hillary Clinton, Trump's 2016 presidential opponent. Details of the evidence against Comey were not provided.
Fitzgerald told the judge he plans to file multiple legal motions to dismiss the case before trial, including motions arguing that the prosecution is vindictive, compromised by "outrageous government conduct" and that Halligan was illegally appointed as U.S. attorney.
Comey spoke briefly in court, confirming that he understood his legal rights. His family sat in the front row of the courtroom's public gallery.
Trump is persecuting political rivals
Trump has been threatening to imprison his political opponents since the beginning of his 2016 presidential campaign, but the case against Comey represents the first time his administration has managed to secure a grand jury indictment against one of them.
The Justice Department under Trump is also conducting investigations into other of his opponents, including Letitia James, California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, and John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during Trump's first term.
Just hours before the hearing, Trump called for the jailing of the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois, both Democrats, as his administration prepared to deploy National Guard troops as part of a crackdown on immigration in the city.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Tuesday, only one in four Americans believes the Justice Department does its job fairly and without political interference.
Halligan, who has no prior criminal prosecution experience and previously worked as an insurance lawyer, presented evidence in this case to the grand jury.
Career prosecutors in her office had earlier drafted a memorandum advising her not to seek indictment, saying there was insufficient evidence to suggest a reasonable suspicion that Comey had committed a crime, Reuters reported. In an unusual move, the government sent two federal prosecutors from another office, in Raleigh, North Carolina, to handle the case.
Trump seeks action against Comey
The indictment against Comey came shortly after Trump publicly complained about the lack of progress in the case. The Justice Department's willingness to respond to his requests violates decades-old norms that have sought to protect the US judiciary from political influence, according to Reuters.
More than 1.000 former Justice Department employees, from both Republican and Democratic administrations, recently signed a letter condemning the case against Comey as "an unprecedented attack on the rule of law."
During his first term as president, Trump fired Comey, who was overseeing the FBI's investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign in 2016 and Russia. The firing sparked a political firestorm and led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation followed Trump through much of his first term.
Mueller's investigation ultimately concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove the existence of a criminal conspiracy.
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