By Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) -Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to criminal charges in a case his lawyer described as a vindictive prosecution directed by President Donald Trump, whose first White House campaign was investigated by Comey.
Throughout his political career, Trump has threatened to jail his rivals, beginning with chants of "lock her up" during his successful 2016 run against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Since returning to the White House, he has urged the Justice Department to take on perceived political enemies.
Comey is the first to be charged, but Trump has also targeted New York state Attorney General Letitia James, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and, as of Wednesday, the Democratic governor of Illinois and Democratic mayor of Chicago.
Comey pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation, which were brought by Trump's former personal attorney, Lindsey Halligan, who was installed last month as a federal prosecutor. Trump forced out her predecessor over his reticence to prosecute Comey and James.
Comey, 64, spoke briefly in court, indicating he understood his legal rights, while his family looked on from the gallery's front row. He made no other public statements on Wednesday, after responding to the charges last month with a defiant video on social media in which he said, "We will not live on our knees."
Comey's lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, entered the plea on Comey's behalf during a roughly 25-minute court hearing and indicated that he planned a barrage of legal challenges to the prosecution.
“Our view is that this prosecution was brought at the direction of President Trump," Fitzgerald said in court.
The Justice Department for the half-century since the Watergate scandal that felled former President Richard Nixon had kept an arm's length distance from the White House, intended to ensure that politics did not influence charging decisions. Trump has changed that, after alleging that the multiple prosecutions he faced in his four years out of power were politically motivated.
U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff of the Eastern District of Virginia scheduled Comey's trial to begin on January 5.
CHARGES RELATED TO 2020 CONGRESSIONAL HEARING
Comey, who appeared at an Alexandria, Virginia, court, is accused of knowingly making a false statement when he told a Republican senator during a 2020 hearing that he stood behind prior testimony that he did not authorize anyone to serve as an anonymous source in news reports about FBI investigations.
The indictment accuses Comey of authorizing an FBI employee to disclose information about a federal probe. The indictment does not identify the investigation, but it appears to relate to Hillary Clinton, Trump's rival in 2016. It does not detail the evidence against Comey.
Fitzgerald told the judge he planned to file several legal motions to dismiss the case before a trial, including filings arguing the prosecution was vindictive, that it was tainted by "outrageous government conduct," and that Halligan was unlawfully appointed as U.S. attorney. Fitzgerald said the defense still did not have basic information about the allegations in the indictment, including whom Comey allegedly authorized to disclose information to the media.
Prosecutor Nathaniel Lemons said the case involved a "significant amount" of classified information, drawing a warning from the judge that the sensitive nature of the evidence would not set the case "off track" and delay a trial.
TRUMP PURSUING POLITICAL RIVALS
Hours before the hearing, Trump called for jailing Chicago's mayor and Illinois' governor, both Democrats, as his administration prepared to deploy National Guard troops during stepped-up immigration enforcement in the city.
Just one in four Americans in a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Tuesday agreed with the statement that the Justice Department does its job fairly and without political interference.
Halligan has no prosecutorial experience and previously worked as an insurance attorney.
Career attorneys in the office previously drafted a memo urging her not to proceed with seeking an indictment, citing a lack of evidence to establish probable cause that he committed a crime, Reuters reported. In a highly unusual move, the government dispatched two federal prosecutors from a different office in Raleigh, North Carolina, to handle the case.
The charges against Comey came shortly after Trump complained publicly about a lack of action on the case. The Justice Department's willingness to respond to Trump's demands represents a breach of decades-long norms that have sought to insulate U.S. law enforcement from political pressures.
More than 1,000 Justice Department alumni from Republican and Democratic administrations recently signed a letter decrying the case against Comey as "an unprecedented assault on the rule of law."
The former FBI director, in his final year in office, drew the anger of both Democrats and Republicans. In July 2016, he called an unusual press conference discussing the FBI investigation of Democratic presidential candidate Clinton that ended without pressing charges, an event that Clinton supporters argued contributed to her loss to Trump.
Trump, in May 2017, fired Comey, angry over his handling of an investigation into contacts between Russia and Trump's campaign. The firing sparked a political firestorm and led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation dogged much of Trump's first presidency.
Mueller's probe ultimately concluded there was not enough evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward; editing by Scott Malone, Rod Nickel and Nick Zieminski)
