James Comey pleads not guilty to charges stemming from 2020 testimony
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former FBI Director James Comey has pleaded not guilty to charges linked to his 2020 congressional testimony about the bureau’s investigation into Russian ties to President Trump’s 2016 campaign.
A trial has been set for Jan. 5.
Comey appeared Wednesday morning before U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff for his arraignment in federal court in Alexandria, Va., where no cameras or other electronics were allowed inside the courthouse to document the high-profile hearing.
Comey’s plea was entered by his attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald.
“It’s the honor of my life to represent Mr. Comey in this matter,” Fitzgerald said when introducing himself to the judge.
Comey entered the courtroom about 15 minutes before the proceeding began.
He sat with his attorneys, fidgeting at times and clasping his hands under his chin.
When prosecutors entered the room, Comey’s attorneys shook hands with them. But Comey himself did not get up from his seat.
Members of Comey’s family were also in attendance, including his daughter Maurene, a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York whom Trump fired in July, and Troy A. Edwards Jr., the ex-FBI director’s son-in-law who resigned from his position as a senior national security prosecutor soon after Comey was indicted.
The two-count indictment against Comey followed a pressure campaign by Trump, who has incessantly vowed retribution against his foes and is increasingly urging his Justice Department to prosecute them.
Comey is accused of falsely claiming during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he did not authorize a leak to news media about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton and the Trump-Russia probe.
The brief exchange with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) centered on testimony Comey gave the committee years earlier, in 2017, when he said he never authorized anyone to be an anonymous source in news reports.
The senator homed in on conflicting accounts between Comey and his former deputy, Andrew McCabe, regarding a leak to the Wall Street Journal about the Clinton investigation just days before the 2016 election.
“What Mr. McCabe is saying and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true,” Cruz pressed during the 2020 hearing. “One or the other is false. Who’s telling the truth?”
The former FBI director replied, “I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by the testimony you summarized.”
The terse charging papers against Comey assert his testimony was false because he “then and there knew” he had authorized an unidentified “Person 3” to serve as an anonymous source in news reports about the probe.
It’s not clear who “Person 3” is, though some news reports have identified it to be Columbia Law School professor Daniel Richman — who previously confirmed leaking a memo he received from Comey about interactions the then-director had with Trump.
Comey faces counts of false statements to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. Each felony carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Erik Siebert, the U.S. attorney who oversaw the investigation into Comey in the Eastern District of Virginia, resigned amid pressure to seek an indictment despite having determined there was not enough evidence to do so.
Trump tapped Lindsey Halligan, a former White House aide with no prior prosecuting experience, to take over the post. She was the only prosecutor on the case until Tuesday, when two Justice Department attorneys from North Carolina entered their appearance.
Charges were ultimately brought just days before the five-year statute of limitations in the case was set to expire. A grand jury declined to indict on a third charge pursued by prosecutors.
Comey’s not guilty plea does not come as a surprise. Hours after the charges against him were announced, he professed his innocence and called for a trial in a video posted to social media.
“My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system,” he said at the time.
The former FBI director has become an outspoken Trump critic since he was fired from the president’s first administration in 2017, while the probe into Russian ties to Trump’s campaign was still ongoing.
Trump called Comey a “dirty cop” after the indictment was made public. The president has long decried the Russia probe as a “hoax” and “witch hunt.”
Maurene Comey has tied her firing to her father’s long-standing feud with the president in a lawsuit challenging her dismissal.
Updated at 10:31 a.m. EDT