ALEXANDRIA, Virginia: Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not responsible on Wednesday (Oct 8) to felony costs accusing him of creating false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation, US media reported, within the first prosecution by the Justice Division in opposition to considered one of President Donald Trump’s political enemies.
The fees have been introduced by Trump’s former private lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, who was put in final month because the US lawyer for the Japanese District of Virginia after Trump pressured out her predecessor over his reticence to prosecute Comey and New York Legal professional Common Letitia James.
Comey, who appeared at an Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom, is accused of knowingly making a false assertion when he advised a Republican senator throughout a listening to in 2020 that he stood behind prior testimony that he didn’t authorise anybody to function an nameless supply in information stories about FBI investigations.
The indictment accuses Comey of authorising an FBI worker to reveal details about a federal probe. The indictment doesn’t establish the investigation, however it seems to narrate to Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump’s rival within the 2016 election. It doesn’t element the proof in opposition to Comey.
Comey has professed his innocence and known as for a trial.
TRUMP PURSUING POLITICAL RIVALS
Trump has threatened to imprison his political rivals for the reason that begin of his 2016 presidential marketing campaign, however the case in opposition to Comey marks the primary time his administration has succeeded in securing a grand jury indictment in opposition to considered one of them.
Trump’s Justice Division can also be investigating different antagonists, together with James, Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff, and John Bolton, who served as a nationwide safety official in Trump’s first time period as president.
Hours earlier than the listening to, Trump called for jailing Chicago’s mayor and Illinois’ governor, each Democrats, as his administration ready to deploy Nationwide Guard troops throughout stepped-up immigration enforcement within the metropolis.
Only one in 4 People in a Reuters/Ipsos ballot accomplished on Tuesday agreed with the assertion that the Justice Division does its job pretty and with out political interference.
