Former FBI Director James B. Comey has pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Alexandria, Virginia.
As The Hill reports:
He appeared Wednesday morning before U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff for his arraignment in federal court in Alexandria, Va., where no cameras or other electronics were allowed inside the courthouse to document the high-profile hearing.
The two-count indictment against Comey followed a pressure campaign by Trump, who has incessantly vowed retribution against his foes and is increasingly urging his Justice Department to prosecute them.
Comey is accused of falsely claiming during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he did not authorize a leak to news media about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton and the Trump-Russia probe.
The brief exchange with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) centers on testimony Comey gave the committee years earlier, in 2017, when he said he never authorized anyone to be an anonymous source in news reports.
On Sept. 25, a federal grand jury in Alexandria, indicted Comey on two counts: making false statements and obstruction related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 30, 2020.
The indictment alleges that Comey falsely testified that he had not authorized someone at the FBI to act as an anonymous source in news reports about an FBI investigation. The government claims that he did authorize such leaks.
The indictment is relatively short (two pages) and does not provide extensive detail about the evidence backing the charges.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, under newly appointed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, is overseeing the case.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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Well, Comey wants to claim innocence. These liars, cheats. thieves are so into their lies they want everyone else to believe them. As one connected indirectly to the FBI, I can say truthfully Comey and Wray are criminals and the good guys in the FBI know them for exactly that, being criminals! Tarnished a good bureau and that is just simply disgusting!
When someone authorizes something to be done as requested then says they did not do that, what does that actually mean? Are they outright lying about the action and demeaning the testimony of those they ordered to do something that was quite obviously illegal or of questionable judgement creating a bad situation in the process? Right now Comey is facing that authorization moment? Did he lie to congress or are the others who he ordered around lying now about it? I believe there was some documentation that Comey must believe does not exist after all these years? So is it his word or the word of who was ordered to act being judges in Comey’s trial?
The FBI except for the top elites aligned with Comey and Wray, but the rest of that team is a good bureau and is tainted by people who have turned them away from the law enforcement agenda into politics. The good people in the bureau, (I am indirectly from a family knowledge attuned to) , do not like Comey or Wray. And yet here the exposure is really being ramped up. Exactly whose character and truthfullness is being damaged. Show the evidence and move on lawyers! The lower levels of the bureau do not tend to contradict orders from above so find exactly where the orders to spy and lie come from! And I guarantee that is the top guy or his direct reports! Then pull the direct reports in and see what they say, why not but I am still assuming the ace in the files stored in the FBI for just such a day still do exist. The security maintained by the tainted level of direct reports to Comey and Wray!