Former FBI director James Comey pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges that he lied to Congress in a case that has roiled the Justice Department and prompted alarm about its independence from the White House.
Defense attorney Patrick Fitzgerald entered the plea on Comey’s behalf during a brief arraignment before U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff in Alexandria, Virginia. President Donald Trump demanded prosecutors pursue the case, despite long-standing concerns within the Justice Department that the evidence was insufficient.
The judge scheduled the trial to begin Jan. 5, but Fitzgerald said Comey’s defense team plans to file a series of motions by the end of the year seeking to dismiss the case on the grounds that it constitutes a vindictive prosecution; that the grand jury process used to indict Comey had been abused; that the government had exhibited outrageous conduct; and that the interim U.S. attorney Trump installed with directions to charge Comey, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed.
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