Former FBI Director James Comey pleads not guilty to lying to Congress
Former FBI Director James Comey has pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to Congress and obstructing Congress in Alexandria, Virginia.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – In front of a packed courtroom, former FBI Director James Comey sat impassively as the lawyer chosen by President Trump and the attorney general to head the agency, admitting that he had failed to present the final version of the indictment Comey now faces to a grand jury.
The Nov. 19 hearing focused primarily on a different issue. Comey argued that he was being prosecuted in retaliation at the president’s behest and therefore the charges should be dismissed. But the case took a turn for the worse when Lindsey Harrigan, Trump’s former personal lawyer who had never served as a prosecutor until she was appointed in late September, confessed.
Harrigan said the grand jury foreman and another grand juror were present when the final version of the indictment was signed. Another prosecutor, Tyler Lemons, said earlier that the grand jury dismissed one of the three counts in the original indictment, and the indictment was subsequently rewritten to include only the two counts that the grand jury voted to approve.
U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, told Harrigan he wanted to “make sure” the current indictment was not presented to a full grand jury, indicating he believed the matter was potentially serious. When Harrigan did not appear to be conflicted and did not respond, the judge told her she could return to her seat.
Mr. Comey’s lawyer, Michael Dreeben, later used this exchange to say that it meant there was no valid indictment in the case. He argued the case should be permanently dismissed because the legal deadline for filing charges expired at the end of September.
Comey, a longtime critic of the president, is suspected of telling senators that he did not allow anonymous information to be leaked to the media, even though he knew the statement was false. Within hours of being indicted, he publicly declared his innocence and vowed to fight the charges.
Is Trump involved in prosecuting Comey?
In a sophisticated Alexandria courtroom, Nakhanov did not rule on whether to dismiss the case, saying the issues were “too weighty and complex” for a ruling on the same day. But his questions during the hearing showed he was concerned not only about the legality of the charges but also whether Trump’s own statements indicated the case had been illegally politicized.
Nakhanov said that shortly after the president posted on social media on September 20 that Comey and the other two targets were “all guilty” and that delay was not an option, the president told reporters, “They are guilty, but they are not guilty. We must act quickly.” Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury five days later on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing the proceedings of Congress while testifying before a Senate committee in 2020.
Mr. Comey’s indictment followed a series of events that fueled protests that Mr. Trump was unfairly politicizing the Justice Department.
First, Eric Siebert, the former chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, resigned from his post in September after reportedly expressing skepticism about bringing charges against Comey. Mr. Siebert told his colleagues in an email that he had resigned, but Mr. Trump later said he had fired Mr. Siebert.
Shortly after, President Trump declared in a social media post on Sept. 20 that Comey was “guilty as hell” and that a delay was not an option. In fact, prosecutors had less than two weeks until the legal deadline to bring charges against Comey expired.
President Trump praised his former personal attorney, Lindsey Harrigan, in the same post addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondy quickly appointed Harrigan to Siebert’s senior position, even though Harrigan had never previously served as a prosecutor. Within days, she secured indictments against Mr. Comey, just days before the legal deadline.
Mr. Comey, through his lawyer, highlighted many of these incidents and claimed there was a vendetta in the case.
“The president is at the top of the hierarchy,” Dreeben said during a Nov. 19 hearing. “In effect, he replaced the U.S. attorney as the decision maker.”
In defense of the government, Mr. Lemons told the judge there was no evidence that Mr. Harrigan did not make the decision to prosecute, only an intimation.
“It was her decision and hers alone,” Lemons said.
Judge asks whether indictment secured by novice prosecutor is valid
After hearing robust arguments about the potentially vindictive nature of the case, Mr. Nakhanov moved to question whether Mr. Harrigan had secured a legitimate prosecution.
His questioning came two days after the magistrate judge appointed to handle some issues in the case wrote that his review of the case record “points to a disturbing pattern of serious investigative errors, namely, that allowed FBI agents and prosecutors to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury process.”
The judge said potential misconduct could ultimately justify throwing out the case.
At one point, Nakhanov reminded Harrigan that, unlike Lemons, he was present at the grand jury proceedings and was allowed to speak.
Harrigan then took to the stage and said the grand jury foreman and another grand juror were present when he signed the indictment.
When Mr. Nakhanov said he simply wanted to confirm that the current indictment had not been presented to the entire grand jury, Mr. Harrigan did not respond. The judge then told her she could sit down.
Mr. Comey’s lawyer, Mr. Dreeben, then returned to the podium and told the judge there was no valid indictment because prosecutors did not present a second version to the entire grand jury. Dreeben argued that the legal deadline to indict Comey had already passed, so the case was over.
Another argument for dismissal of Comey’s case
Comey also said the case should be thrown out because it was a “selective” prosecution targeting him for exercising his right to free speech. His lawyers are expected to argue in court on November 19 that he was the only former Trump administration official to be indicted, even though he faces more credible allegations of misleading Congress.
Government lawyers said the comparisons Comey made bear no resemblance to the facts of his case because he allegedly testified before Congress about his official actions as head of an executive branch.
Mr. Comey’s “vengeful” and “selective” prosecution claims are not the only reason the case could be thrown out. Mr. Comey has also challenged the legality of Mr. Halligan’s appointment, and another judge appointed to handle several issues in the case said in a Nov. 17 opinion that a number of potential irregularities in the grand jury proceedings that led to the indictment could be grounds for dismissing the case.
(This article has been updated with new information.)
