Former FBI Director James Comey will go to trial on January 5, after pleading not guilty to charges tied to his handling of the FBI’s Russia investigation.
Comey appeared Wednesday morning before Judge Michael Nachmanoff in Alexandria, Virginia, for his arraignment in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He is charged with making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.
According to the indictment, the charges trace back to Comey’s September 2020 congressional testimony about his handling of the FBI’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Prosecutors filed the case just days before the statute of limitations was set to expire on September 30.
The prosecution, led by U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, stated that they expected the trial to last 2-3 days. Nachmanoff set the trial start for January 5 after both sides requested more time.
“This does not appear to me to be an overly complicated case,” he said, according to the New York Times. “I’m not going to force you to go to trial in December if both sides don’t feel they can be ready.”
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Between now and the trial, Comey’s defense team is expected to file several motions to dismiss the case altogether.
The indictment says that Comey falsely told a senator that he had not “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports” regarding an FBI investigation into someone identified as “Person 1.” This statement was false, the indictment alleges, because Comey had authorized someone to be an anonymous source for news reports.
“No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said after the indictment was announced. “Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.”
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