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James Comey has pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to and obstructing US Congress, in the first court appearance by the former FBI director who oversaw a probe into alleged links between Donald Trump and Russia.
Michael Nachmanoff, the judge presiding over the case in Virginia, on Wednesday set a trial date of January 5.
The Department of Justice’s case against Comey marks a dramatic escalation of Trump’s attacks on his political enemies, raising fears among the president’s critics that he is wielding the DoJ as a weapon of retribution.
The department has also launched investigations targeting Lisa Cook, a top Federal Reserve official, and Letitia James, the New York attorney-general who last year brought a civil fraud case against Trump. The DoJ rejects the claims that it is being used to punish Trump’s enemies.
The charges came after the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who was in charge of the investigation against Comey resigned — and days after Trump picked Lindsey Halligan, his former personal lawyer, to replace him.
They followed a social media post in which Trump last month urged his attorney-general, Pam Bondi, to prosecute Comey and James.
Patrick Fitzgerald, a lawyer representing Comey, told the court he would seek to submit a vindictive prosecution motion and would challenge the lawfulness of Halligan’s appointment. She was also in attendance.
“This prosecution was brought at the direction of President Trump to silence . . . a critic of him,” Fitzgerald told the court.
Comey, who reached the courtroom 20 minutes early wearing a red tie, spoke only when asked by the judge whether he understood the counts against him. “I do your honour, thank you very much,” he said.
The government did not seek to detain Comey.
Protesters holding placards were gathered outside the Virginia courtroom during the brief hearing.
“I don’t know whether what’s going on is more of Putin’s show trial or Trump’s reality TV, but it’s messed up,” said Bill Christeson, a 71-year-old democracy activist holding a sign that read “SHOW TRIAL”.
Bondi declined to comment on Comey’s case at an appearance before a congressional committee on Tuesday but said he had been “indicted . . . [by] one of the most liberal grand juries in the country”.
Trump appeared to suggest last month that more of his political foes could also be prosecuted, warning that while there was no list of who would be targeted, “there will be others”.
The president on Tuesday turned his attention to Jack Smith, the former special counsel who oversaw federal criminal cases targeting the president during the Biden administration, including for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Republican US Senator Chuck Grassley this week shared a memo showing that federal investigators had acquired phone records of nine Republican lawmakers while probing Trump’s alleged interference in the 2020 polls.
“Deranged Jack Smith got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. A real sleazebag!!!” Trump wrote on social media.
FBI director Kash Patel earlier that day wrote on X that he “initiated an ongoing investigation” and fired staff in relation to the “baseless monitoring” of the Republican lawmakers.
Smith’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Comey last month proclaimed his innocence in a video posted on social media. “My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump. But we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way,” he said.
The allegations stem from Comey’s testimony before the Senate judiciary committee in 2020, when he was questioned by Republican Ted Cruz about whether he authorised anyone at the FBI to leak information to the press.
Comey denied that he gave that authorisation. His statement conflicted with separate testimony from former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
If convicted, Comey faces up to five years in prison, although sentences for federal crimes are often shorter than the maximum.
Trump fired Comey as head of the FBI in 2017 as he was overseeing a probe into links between the Republican’s presidential campaign and Russia. The men have feuded publicly since then.
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