Ex-FBI chief Comey pleads not guilty to false statements charges

Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to criminal charges, and his lawyer said he would file a barrage of legal challenges to the first prosecution by the Justice Department against one of President Donald Trump's political enemies.

The charges, accusing Comey of making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation, were brought by Trump's former personal attorney, Lindsey Halligan.

She was installed last month as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after Trump forced out her predecessor over his reticence to prosecute Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The case is a test of Trump's intent to use the legal system against people who have criticised him or resisted his agenda, despite concerns from career prosecutors about the strength of the evidence.

U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff of the Eastern District of Virginia scheduled the trial to begin on January 5. 

Comey's lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, entered the plea on Comey's behalf during a roughly 25-minute court hearing.

“Our view is that this prosecution was brought at the direction of President Trump," Fitzgerald said in court.

CHARGES RELATED TO 2020 CONGRESSIONAL HEARING

Comey, who appeared at an Alexandria, Virginia, court, is accused of knowingly making a false statement when he told a Republican senator during a 2020 hearing that he stood behind prior testimony that he did not authorise anyone to serve as an anonymous source in news reports about FBI investigations.

The indictment accuses Comey of authorising an FBI employee to disclose information about a federal probe.

The indictment does not identify the investigation, but it appears to relate to Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump's rival in the 2016 election. It does not detail the evidence against Comey.

Fitzgerald told the judge he planned to file several legal motions to dismiss the case before a trial, including filings arguing the prosecution was vindictive, that it was tainted by "outrageous government conduct," and that Halligan was unlawfully appointed as U.S. attorney.

Fitzgerald said the defence still did not have basic information about the allegations in the indictment, including whom Comey allegedly authorised to disclose information to the media.

Prosecutor Nathaniel Lemons said the case involved a "significant amount" of classified information, drawing a warning from the judge that the sensitive nature of the evidence would not set the case "off track" and delay a trial.

Comey spoke briefly in court, indicating he understood his legal rights. His family sat in the front row of the courtroom's public gallery. 

TRUMP PURSUING POLITICAL RIVALS

Trump has threatened to imprison his political rivals since the start of that 2016 campaign, but the case against Comey marks the first time his administration has succeeded in securing a grand jury indictment against one of them.

Trump's Justice Department is also investigating other antagonists, including James, Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff, and John Bolton, who served as a national security official in Trump's first term as president.

Hours before the hearing, Trump called for jailing Chicago's mayor and Illinois' governor, both Democrats, as his administration prepared to deploy National Guard troops during stepped-up immigration enforcement in the city.

Just one in four Americans in a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Tuesday agreed with the statement that the Justice Department does its job fairly and without political interference. 

Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience and previously worked as an insurance attorney, presented the evidence in the case to the grand jury.

Career attorneys in the office previously drafted a memo urging her not to proceed with seeking an indictment, citing a lack of evidence to establish probable cause that he committed a crime, Reuters reported.

In a highly unusual move, the government dispatched two federal prosecutors from a different office in Raleigh, North Carolina, to handle the case.

The charges against Comey came shortly after Trump complained publicly about a lack of action on the case. The Justice Department's willingness to respond to Trump's demands represents a breach of decades-long norms that have sought to insulate U.S. law enforcement from political pressures.

More than 1,000 Justice Department alumni from Republican and Democratic administrations recently signed a letter decrying the case against Comey as "an unprecedented assault on the rule of law." 

The former FBI director, in his final year in office, drew the anger of both Democrats and Republicans. In July 2016, he called an unusual press conference discussing the FBI investigation of Democratic presidential candidate Clinton that ended without pressing charges, an event that Clinton supporters argued contributed to her loss to Trump. 

Trump, in May 2017, fired Comey, angry over his handling of an investigation into contacts between Russia and Trump's campaign.

The firing sparked a political firestorm and led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation dogged much of Trump's first presidency.

Mueller's probe ultimately concluded there was not enough evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy.

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