Comey pleads not guilty as lawyers signal intent to argue Trump foe's case is politically motivated

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: AP

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — James Comey pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a criminal case that has highlighted the Justice Department’s efforts to target adversaries of President Donald Trump, with lawyers for the former FBI director saying they plan to argue the prosecution is politically motivated and should be dismissed.

The arraignment lasted less than half an hour, but it was nonetheless loaded with historical significance given that the case has amplified concerns the Justice Department is being weaponized in pursuit of the Republican president’s political enemies and is operating at the behest of an administration determined to seek retribution.

Comey’s not guilty plea to allegations that he lied to Congress five years ago kick-starts a process of legal wrangling that could culminate in a trial months from now at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of Washington. Defense lawyers said they intend to ask that the case be thrown out before trial on grounds that it constitutes a vindictive prosecution and also plan to challenge the legitimacy of the appointment of the prosecutor who filed the charges just days after Trump hastily appointed her to her position.

“It’s the honor of my life to represent Mr. Comey in this matter,” one of Comey’s lawyers, Patrick Fitzgerald, a longtime friend who served with him in President George W. Bush’s Justice Department, said in court on Wednesday.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-comey-justice-department-russia-court-appearance-141a5ada1f3c1018b7a417f2a156673f

[popsdenver]

1. Yet another one of Trump's supporters

kicked to the curb, showing once again what happens to eventually everyone near Trump, when they outgrow their usefulness......

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. Comey's challenge of Lindsey Halligan is the latest bid to derail Trump's top prosecutors

Halligan was not validly appointed. The statute of limitations has run on Comey's so-called crimes and if Halligan is disqualified, then the case against Comey goes away

On the one hand you just want to scream that she has no experience as a prosecutor, on the other hand leading a position with the descriptor "Trump's top" pretty much means the person is inexperienced and incompetent, and probably doesn't legally hold the position.

You win this round CNN.

— Jon (@jonvw4.bsky.social) 2025-10-09T13:57:08.910Z

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/09/politics/trump-halligan-doj-appointment-challenged-comey

Before FBI Director James Comey heads to trial in January over charges of lying to Congress, his team plans to put the prosecutors — and specifically President Donald Trump’s handpicked interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan — on the defensive.

Comey’s strategy, as outlined in court on Wednesday, will focus on attacking Halligan’s authority as the US Attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia as part of efforts to convince the court to dismiss the charges against him.

The coming challenge to remove Halligan from the case is just one in a wave of recent criminal defense lawyers around the country calling into question Trump’s use of top prosecutors who haven’t been confirmed by the Senate. Some of those challenges have been successful.

Halligan may make the Comey case especially vulnerable, in that she was the only prosecutor to take the indictment through a grand jury, and was sworn in by the administration to lead her office just days before......

Ed Whelan, a conservative legal commenter, has been writing in the National Review about why he thinks Halligan, who signed off on Comey’s indictment, doesn’t have prosecutorial authority.

“It seems highly doubtful that Lindsey Halligan has been validly appointed as United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia,” Whelan wrote in the National Review recently. “If her appointment is invalid, so is her indictment of Comey.”