Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in a criminal case involving the Justice Department’s efforts to target President Donald Trump’s opponents.
Comey entered a not guilty plea through his lawyer in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, saying he lied to Congress five years ago and launched a process of legal wrangling in which defense lawyers will almost certainly bring the charges to trial, perhaps by fighting the case amount to a selective or popular effort.
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Judge Rules Federal immigration agents illegally arrested more than two dozen people in January
The federal judge ruled Tuesday on the arrests, which occurred in the early days of President Trump’s second term.
The ACLU of Illinois and other immigration advocates in Chicago sued DHS and ICE in March, claiming the arrests of 26 people in the Midwest violated a 2022 consent decree that bars Ice from arresting people without warrants or probable cause.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered Ice to make monthly disclosures about how many arrest agents make monthly non-custodial arrests.
“Today’s decision makes clear that DHS and ICE—like everyone else—must follow the Constitution and the law,” Michelle García, deputy legal director at the ACLU of Illinois and co-counsel in the case, said in a statement. “The federal government’s reckless practice of stopping, harassing and detaining people – and then finding justification for the action must end.”
Johnson says no “show votes” about troop pay
House Speaker Mike Johnson is rejecting calls from some lawmakers for Congress to hold a standalone vote on paying military service members who will miss a paycheck next week if the shutdown is not resolved soon.
Johnson said the House already had that vote as part of a stop-lick spending bill that would have funded the federal government through Nov. 21.
“Every Republican and at least one Democrat had the common sense to say, ‘Of course we want the government to stay in operation.’ “Of course we want our troops and our air traffic controllers and our border patrol agents (TSA) and everyone else,” Johnson said. “We had that vote.”
“The house is finished,” he added. “The ball is now in the court of the Senate. It doesn’t do us any good to be on show votes here.”
The Speaker of the House says furloughed workers should return after the shutdown
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s comments during a news conference at the Capitol on Wednesday follow the Trump administration’s warning about no guaranteed payback for federal workers during a shutdown, potentially reversing the longstanding policy for some 750,000 furloughed workers.
Johnson said he has yet to dig into the legal analysis that forms the basis for the administration’s warning.
But he said it’s tradition “and I think it’s the law that federal workers get paid.”
“And I think they should be,” Johnson said.
Comey’s trial date is tentatively set for January 5th
The criminal case has put a spotlight on the Justice Department’s efforts to target President Trump’s opponents.
Comey pleaded not guilty through his attorney to charges alleging he lied to Congress for five years.
Former FBI director James Comey has pleaded not guilty
Comey entered the not guilty plea through his attorney in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, that he lied to Congress five years ago and launched a process of legal wrangling in which defense lawyers were almost certainly put on trial, perhaps by fighting the case amount, perhaps leading to a selective or popular effort.
Former FBI Director James Comey has appeared in court on charges
Comey is expected to plead not guilty during his appearance in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Wednesday.
Comey’s arraignment is expected to be brief. But the moment is nonetheless fraught with historical significance, as the case has heightened concerns that the Justice Department, in its pursuit of President Trump’s political enemies, is acting at the behest of a White House determined to seek retaliation.
Comey’s legal team includes Patrick Fitzgerald, the former U.S. attorney in Chicago.
Trump plans to hold a roundtable on Antifa
The White House has not released details of the meeting scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Trump has said he plans to designate Antifa, an umbrella term for far-left militant groups, as a “major terrorist organization,” but it is not clear how that would work against the decentralized movement.
Trump calls on the governor of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago as executives speak out against the deployment of the Guard
The president said in a social media post Wednesday morning that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritkzer, both Democrats, “should be in jail for not protecting the ice officer!”
It was not immediately clear what Trump was specifically objecting to with his post, but it was the latest example of his brash calls for his opponents to be prosecuted or jailed, a break from longstanding norms when the Justice Department has traditionally sought to maintain its independence.
Authorities said a woman was shot in Chicago over the weekend when Border Patrol vehicles were pushed in and struck by other vehicles.
Outside Chicago, in the village of Broadview, there were skirmishes between protesters and agents outside a detention center.
Some of Comey’s family members arrived in court ahead of the arraignment
They include his daughter Maurene, who was fired by the Justice Department from her position as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan earlier this year, as well as Troy Edwards Jr., a son-in-law of Comey’s who minutes after Comey was indicted, left his job as a prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia – the same office that filed the subpoenas.
The federal government shutdown is expanding into a second week, but peaceful conversations are emerging
Tours at the Capitol have come to a halt. The House is keeping its doors closed while the Senate is stuck in a cycle of failed votes on a rejected plan to reopen the government. President Trump is threatening to fire federal workers and roll back pay for the rest.
As the government shutdown enters a second week, there is no apparent endgame in sight.
Republicans, who hold a majority in Congress, believe they have the upper hand politically as they push aside Democratic demands to quickly fund health insurance subsidies as part of any plan to end the shutdown. But the Democrats have also dug in, convinced Americans are on their side in the fight to prevent the impending price spikes for health care and to blame Trump for the shutdown.
Behind the scenes, however, signs of discomfort are evident.
A loosely-educated collection of senators, Republicans and Democrats weighed in on options for solving the health insurance problem.
And Trump himself signaled he was open to negotiating with Democrats over their demands to save health care subsidies.
▶ Read more about the government shutdown
The lawsuit against Trump’s deployment of the Washington National Guard exposes the country’s deep partisan divide
A partisan battle is playing out in a Washington courtroom that could decide the fate of President Trump’s state office in the nation’s capital.
Dozens of states have taken sides in a lawsuit challenging the deployment of the open National Guard in Washington, with their support falling along party lines. It shows how law enforcement in the nation’s capital remains a flashpoint in the Republican president’s expansion to send the military to cities across the country, underscoring deepening divisions over the move.
The lawsuit, filed Sept. 4 by Washington Attorney General Brian Schwalb, calls for the Trump administration’s apply of the National Guard in the heavily Democratic city as part of an emergency order issued by Trump to stop the president calling crime “out of control.” Although the order has expired, hundreds of troops are still in the city, seeking an injunction to stop the deployment.
▶ Read more about the lawsuit over federal intervention
The veteran defense attorney turned judge is overseeing the case against former FBI Director Comey
Michael Nachmanoff built a peaceful reputation in the federal courthouse in Northern Virginia – a one-time public defender who became known for methodical preparation and a frigid temperament. On Wednesday, he finds himself at the center of a political storm: presiding over the Justice Department’s prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey.
According to President Joe Biden’s bench, Nachmanoff was randomly assigned to the case after a grand jury in Virginia indicted Comey last month on a charge of obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The task immediately caught the attention of President Trump. Trump, long fixated on Comey, has derided him as a “dirty cop” and derided Nachmanoff as a “crooked Joe Biden judge” while celebrating the indictment as “justice for America!”
Despite the political noise, lawyers who know Nachmanoff say he is unlikely to be influenced.
▶ Read more about Judge Michael Nachmanoff
Comey’s indictment two weeks ago followed an extraordinary chain of events
President Trump publicly called on attorney Pam Bondi to take action against Comey and other perceived opponents.
The Republican president also replaced the veteran lawyer who had been overseeing the investigation with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide who had never previously served as a federal prosecutor. Halligan rushed charges before a legal deadline despite warnings from other attorneys in the office that there was insufficient evidence to support an indictment.
The two-count indictment alleges that Comey made a false statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 30, 2020, denying that an aide served as an anonymous source for the news media and obstructing a congressional proceeding. Comey has denied any wrongdoing and said he looks forward to a trial.
▶ Read more about the case against James Comey
Trump’s public schedule, according to the White House
11 a.m. ET: The President will receive his intelligence briefing
3 p.m.: Trump will join a roundtable on Antifa
