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.
Former FBI Director James Comey is asking a federal court in Virginia to dismiss charges against him by a former Trump aide who recently became the state’s attorney general.
“President Trump ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute Mr. Comey out of personal malice and because Mr. Comey has frequently criticized the President for his actions while in office,” Comey’s lawyers argued in an Oct. 20 motion.
The defense team argued that the evidence showed that the case against Comey amounted to a “vindictive prosecution,” which is why it was thrown out entirely.
Comey was indicted on September 25 by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing the proceedings of Congress during testimony before a Senate committee in 2020. This charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, but federal sentences are usually less than the maximum penalty.
The charge that Mr. Comey lied to Congress is tied to a charge that he knowingly told senators that someone at the FBI had not authorized him to anonymously divulge information about the investigation to the media. At the Oct. 8 hearing in which Comey pleaded not guilty, his lawyer, former Justice Department official Patrick Fitzgerall, said: He and Comey said they still don’t know who the alleged authorized leaker is.
Meanwhile, Lindsay Harrigan took over around September 20 after Eric Siebert, who until September was the head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, expressed skepticism about a potential case against Comey and another potential case against New York Attorney General Letitia James, another target of President Donald Trump.
Harrigan on Oct. 9 secured an indictment against James, who filed a civil lawsuit against Trump in 2022 for alleged financial fraud.
Harrigan previously served as a White House aide in the Trump administration and worked as his personal attorney.
Around the time President Trump appointed Harrigan to lead his Virginia office, he posted on social media that Comey was “extremely guilty” and that a delay was not an option. September 30th marks the five-year deadline for charges against Comey. A grand jury evaluated the indictment five days before that deadline.
Why did Mr. Comey insist that the charges be dropped?
Fitzgerald indicated during an Oct. 8 court hearing that his defense plans to make a series of arguments challenging the charges, including that they amount to retaliatory prosecution.
Defense attorneys kept that promise in an Oct. 20 motion, accusing the Justice Department of seeking charges against the former FBI director at the president’s behest.
The defense team called for Mr. Comey’s indictment, noting that around the time Mr. Harrigan was appointed, Mr. Trump had posted a post calling Mr. Comey “extremely guilty.”
The lawyers also described Comey’s history of urging Americans not to vote for Trump and Trump’s history of publicly attacking Comey.
In August 2020, Comey wrote a Washington Post op-ed in which he urged Americans to vote for Joe Biden, saying, “If Trump’s style of justice becomes our tradition, no one will be safe.” The following month, President Trump reposted a message from Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Jordan that said Comey and others “should be in jail.”
On MSNBC in May 2024, Comey claimed that a second Trump administration would have a “profound” impact on the Justice Department and FBI, arguing that “Trump is coming for these agencies.” Days later, President Trump posted on Truth Social that Comey had committed “horrors” and was “spreading lies.”
“Mr. Comey has proven that his prosecution was ‘motivated by an actual sense of revenge,’ and the charges should be dismissed,” the defense team argued.
This story has been updated with additional information.
