Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges of lying to Congress.
Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges of lying to Congress.
Former FBI Director James Comey has pleaded not guilty to both counts in a federal indictment related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020.
He is charged with one count of false statements and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding.
The plea was entered by his attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who asked for a jury trial.
Comey was in court Wednesday for the first time since he was indicted last month.
He was joined inside the Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom by Fitzgerald and attorneys David Kelley and Jessica Carmichael.
The government was being represented by U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan and Nathaniel “Tyler” Lemons, a prosecutor from the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Comey’s wife and his daughter, Maureen Comey, were seen arriving at the Alexandria courthouse ahead of the proceeding.
A federal grand jury indicted Comey on Sept. 25. Comey has denied any wrongdoing and said he looks forward to a trial.
The indictment came just days after President Donald Trump publicly demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department act “now” against Comey and other political opponents.
Comey has been a longtime target of Trump’s criticism over his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump on Monday, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, called Comey a “dirty cop” and claimed it was a “simple case.”
But the Comey matter has thrown the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia into turmoil, according to sources. The previous U.S. attorney, Erik Siebert, resigned over pressure from the Trump administration to bring criminal charges against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump said he fired Siebert.
Trump then handpicked Halligan, a White House aide and his former defense attorney, to replace Siebert and lead the office. Halligan presented the Comey case to the grand jury, despite prosecutors and investigators determining there was insufficient evidence to charge him, ABC News reported at the time.
Ahead of Wednesday’s arraignment, the Department of Justice added two assistant U.S. attorneys from out of state to work on the case.
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin, Peter Charalambous and Ely Brown contributed to this report.