Former FBI Director James Comey, one of Donald Trump’s black animals, argued no on Wednesday, October 8 in federal court in a case emblematic of the increasingly aggressive judicial campaign led by the US president against his political opponents.
Charged in September with obstructing a parliamentary commission of inquiry and making false statements in Congress, he appeared around 10 a.m. in federal court in Alexandria, in the suburbs of Washington. On his behalf, his lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. A trial was set for January 5.
Some protesters stood in the courthouse, brandishing signs that read “repression of the opposition,” “fabricated accusations” or even “show judgment.”
Pressure from Donald Trump
The former federal police chief had been brutally fired by Donald Trump in 2017, during the Republican’s first term, while the FBI was investigating possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. He has been one of the president’s targets.
In September, Donald Trump had publicly pressured his attorney general, Pam Bondi, surprising on his social media platform that James Comey has not yet been charged.
He then pushed the district attorney in Virginia to resign, implicitly accusing him of his lack of zeal in this file, and quickly replaced him in this strategic position with Lindsey Halligan, a White House adviser.
The latter initiated the procedure that led to the indictment on September 25 of James Comey, 64, in connection with his oral testimony in the Senate in September 2020.
He is specifically accused of having denied, in response to a question from a senator, that he had authorized his assistant to be quoted under the cover of anonymity in the media regarding sensitive surveys conducted by the FBI.
“I am innocent”
“Justice in America!”, Donald Trump sank on Social Truth after the announcement of the charges against James Comey, described as “one of the worst human beings this country has ever known.”
The Republican billionaire had made no secret of his desire for revenge during the last presidential campaign against his opponents. Since returning to power in January, US authorities have opened several investigations against figures considered hostile.
In the wake of James Comey’s charge, the president had launched a new basis for the Justice Department to go after those he perceives as his enemies, saying there would be others.”
In his viewfinder he included the former CIA director John Brennan, who had notably denounced “collusion” between the president’s entourage and Russia, or the attorney general of the state of New York, Letitia James, who had sentenced him to a fine of almost half a billion dollars before his return to the White House in a fraud case.
“I’m not afraid,” James Comey reacted after his accusation.
“My family and I have known for years how hard it is to oppose Donald Trump,” he said, asking not to live “on our knees” against the president.
“I have confidence in federal justice and I am innocent,” he concluded. After the ouster of James Comey, the investigation into Russian interference had been entrusted to special counsel Robert Mueller, his predecessor at the head of the FBI.
In his report in 2019, Robert Mueller had concluded that the evidence of collusion between Moscow and Donald Trump was insufficient, but had increased a series of disturbing pressures exerted by the president in his investigation.
Source: BFM TV
