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Former FBI Director James Comey has appealed Not guilty of lying to Congress President Donald Trump in one case demanded The Justice Department is pursuing his longtime enemy, regardless of the evidence.
Comey made his first appearance in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia on Wednesday face charges Stemming from his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020, when he denied authorizing leaks to journalists.
“Thank you, your honor,” Comey said inside the courtroom after the charges were read. “thank you so much.”
The trial date is tentatively scheduled to begin on January 5, 2026, but Comey’s lawyers are expected to try to have the case thrown out altogether, citing Trump’s “retaliatory” prosecution and the president’s establishment of his own personal attorney to bring the case against him.
Comey’s lawyers are preparing a motion to disqualify the Virginia US Attorney Lindsay Halligan, And his defense attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said his legal team would also accuse the government of abusing the grand jury process and “outrageous” conduct.
To convict him of making false statements to Congress, the jury would have to agree that they believed he knowingly and knowingly deceived senators about the content of a question at the center of the 2020 Senate hearings.
The hearing focused on the FBI’s role in the Trump-Russia investigation, although allegations that Comey made false statements to the committee include a separate investigation of Hillary Clinton’s foundation in 2016.
Two months into Trump’s first term, Comey announced that the FBI was investigating Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, and sought to determine whether “there were any connections between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government,” Comey testified at the time.
Comey is now accused of lying about whether he authorized anyone in the FBI to be a source Wall Street Journal, which published a story about the investigation of Trump’s former Democratic rival in October 2016, shortly before the presidential election, which Trump won.
At the hearing, Republican Senator Ted Cruz asked Comey if he had ever authorized “anyone else at the FBI” to be an anonymous source, although Comey said he stood by previous testimony in which he had said he had not authorized any leaks.
The indictment alleges that his testimony was false, and that Comey authorized another person—who is not identified in the indictment—”to serve as an anonymous source in news reports” about the FBI’s investigation into Clinton.
In 2018, an Inspector General report sided with Comey’s account, finding that in 2016, then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe had authorized FBI personnel to talk. wall street journalAnd then there was a “lack of clarity” when Comey and other officials contacted him about the source of the leaks.
McCabe was fired from the FBI the following month, just days before his scheduled retirement.
Last month, McCabe told CNN it was “incredible” that law enforcement never contacted him about the case.
McCabe said, “All I can say is from my own experience, and that is that I never saw Jim Comey authorize other people to leak information.”
Comey – whose firing by Trump during his first administration led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller – has Has been the target of the President and his associates for a long time Following his investigation to determine whether Trump’s associates coordinated with Russian figures to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
“I’m not afraid, and I hope you’re not afraid either,” Comey said in a video message last week responding to his indictment. “My heart breaks for the Justice Department, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system.”
The Russia investigation derailed the president’s first term and cast a shadow over his 2024 campaign and the current administration, prompting a campaign of retribution against his perceived political enemies. The case against Comey is the most significant prosecution yet against Trump’s alleged opponents since the president clearly directed His Justice Department will investigate Comey and others.
Trump, his Attorney General Pam Bondi and that The Justice Department was radically redesigned. — now filled with loyalists and lawyers seeking to dominate the agencies that the president claims have been weaponized against him — they are also targeting key Democratic officials, progressives fundraising groups and an array of ideological opposition The administration’s allegation is related to terrorist acts.
Comey, a registered Republican who worked for the Justice Department since the 1980s, is the first former senior government official to face criminal charges as part of Trump’s retaliation campaign, which the president celebrated by branding him “one of the worst human beings this country has ever seen” on his Truth Social.
Prosecutors investigating his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020 have repeatedly rejected bringing criminal charges against him, citing insufficient evidence that he committed perjury.
According to an internal memo in which career prosecutors explained why they would not seek indictments, prosecutors determined that a central witness – Comey’s longtime friend Daniel Richmond, a law professor at Columbia University – would prove “problematic” and would likely prevent them from establishing the case. for abc news,
The memo stated that Richmond’s testimony would create “potentially insurmountable problems” for the prosecution.
But Comey was ultimately charged after Trump successfully pressured the acting head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia to resign.
Despite his lack of prosecution experience, he appointed one of his former personal lawyers to the role.
In a highly unusual move, Lindsay Halligan presented the case to the grand jury herself, and the grand jury voted to indict her last month.
Halligan initially sought to drop three charges against Comey, but 12 or more jurors found no probable cause to convict him. If convicted on the two remaining charges, he faces up to five years in prison.
John Bowden contributed reporting from Alexandria