ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former FBI Director James Comey has officially pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied to Congress.
Comey entered the not guilty plea in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Wednesday.
He was charged with making false statements to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding, The Associated Press reported. Both are criminal charges.
Comey faces up to five years in prison if convicted, CNN reported.
The charges were filed after he testified in 2020 in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about whether he knew of a classified information leak that was eventually reported by news agencies.
He said at the time, “he had not authorized someone else to be an anonymous source in news reports." The indictment filed last month said “That statement was false,” CNN reported.
Comey’s trial is set to begin Jan. 5 and is expected to last only a few days.
It is expected that Comey’s legal team will try to get the charges dismissed, claiming that it was a selective or vindictive prosecution, the AP reported. There are allegations that the charges were filed against President Donald Trump’s former FBI director at the request of the president.
Trump fired Comey in 2017 as the FBI investigated the president’s campaign, CNN reported.
CNN reported that Trump wrote to current FBI Director Pam Bondi on Truth Social in September, "We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote to Bondi in the social media post. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!"
The US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, declined to prosecute Comey and was removed earlier this year, The Washington Post reported.
Trump appointed Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide who never prosecuted a case, as the interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Three days after her appointment, she presented the case to a grand jury and got two of the three charges the Justice Department had presented. Halligan is being assisted by two federal prosecutors from North Carolina after prosecutors in Virginia declined to help her on the case, the Post reported.
“My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I’m innocent,” Comey said in a video last month after being indicted, adding, "Let’s have a trial. And keep the faith,” CNN reported.