The Latest: Comey pleads not guilty in Justice Department case accusing him of lying to Congress
By The Associated Press
Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a criminal case that has thrown a spotlight on the Justice Department’s efforts to target adversaries of President Donald Trump.
Comey entered a not guilty plea through his lawyer at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, to allegations that he lied to Congress five years ago, kick-starting a process of legal wrangling in which defense lawyers will almost certainly move to get the indictment dismissed before trial, possibly by arguing the case amounts to a selective or vindictive prosecution.
Here’s the latest:
Illinois governor says feds haven’t communicated on National Guard plans
Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday reiterated that “the federal government has not communicated with us in any way about their troop movements.”
“I can’t believe I have to say ‘troop movements’ in an American city, but that is what we’re talking about here,” he told reporters.
When asked what he would do if a federal court rules in his favor to block National Guard deployment in Chicago yet they continue operations, Pritzker said he would do what is needed to enforce the ruling.
“We would enforce a judicial ruling,” he said. “You should hope that the federal government, the state government, the local government would be able to enforce a federal court’s order. That’s why we went to court.”
IRS to furlough nearly half of its workforce
The IRS will furlough nearly half of its workforce as part of the ongoing government shutdown according to the an updated contingency plan posted to the IRS website, Wednesday, and most IRS operations are closed, the agency says in a separate letter to IRS workers.
The news comes after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to fund federal operations and the government shutdown has entered its second week, with no discernible endgame in sight.
The IRS’ initial Lapse in Appropriations Contingency Plan provided for the first five business days of operations, when states that the department would remain open using Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act funds.
According to the new lapse plan, only 39,870 employees, or 53.6%, of the total employee population of 74,299 will remain working as the shutdown continues.
Democratic congressmen lead letter to GOP House Speaker on troop pay
Reps. Derek Tran and Gabe Vasquez co-led a letter signed by 53 other Democrats calling for Johnson to bring a bill that would “ensure that military service members, as well as civilian personnel and contractors, will continue to receive pay during a government shutdown” to the House floor.
“We urge you to bring legislation to pay America’s service members to the House floor for a vote in time to ensure military personnel get paid on October 15th,” the letter reads. “If Congress does not act by October 15th, nearly three million military families will miss their next paycheck. That’s unacceptable — our military families and troops deserve better.”
Debate unfolds in the Capitol halls
Frustration is running high in the Capitol, spilling over in a hallway debate between House Speaker Mike Johnson and two Democratic senators.
Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego gathered reporters in front of the speaker’s office Wednesday afternoon to call on Johnson to swear in an Arizona congresswoman-elect who won a special election two weeks ago.
But Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, was not about to let them stand outside his office without a challenge.
After quickly shaking their hands, Johnson said he would swear in Adelita Grijalva after the government shutdown: “We need the lights turned back on, so we encourage both of you to go open the government.”
Gallego argued that Johnson was trying to keep Grijalva from providing crucial support to force a vote on a bill to release the Epstein files.
“Get your people in and stop covering up for the pedophiles,” Gallego snapped at Johnson.
‘Do your damn job’: Federal worker union leaders slam Congress, Trump
Top union leaders representing federal employees, along with allied labor groups, on Wednesday pressured both parties to reach a solution to end the shutdown.
“No American should ever have to choose between serving their country and feeding their family,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.
Union leaders criticized both parties in Congress but also targeted Trump, accusing him of using federal workers as “political pawns” after warnings Tuesday that back pay is not guaranteed.
“He intends to either violate the law, or degrade, frighten, antagonize hardworking federal employees whose only crime is caring and wanting to work for the American people,” said Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees.
“Congress, do your damn job,” added Erwin. “And president, you better start obeying the Constitution.”
Indictment was the latest chapter in a long-broken relationship between Trump and Comey
Trump arrived in office in January 2017 as Comey, appointed to the FBI director job by President Barack Obama, was overseeing an investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The dynamic was fraught from the start, with Comey briefing Trump weeks before he took office on the existence of uncorroborated and sexually salacious gossip in a dossier of opposition research compiled by a former British spy.
In their first several private interactions, Comey would later reveal, Trump asked his FBI director to pledge his loyalty to him and to drop an FBI investigation into his administration’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Comey said Trump also asked him to announce that Trump himself wasn’t under investigation as part of the broader inquiry into Russian election interference, something Comey didn’t do.
Comey was abruptly fired in May 2017 with Trump later saying he was thinking about “this Russia thing” when he decided to terminate him. The firing was investigated by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller as an act of potential obstruction of justice.
Comey in 2018 published a memoir, “A Higher Loyalty,” that painted Trump in deeply unflattering ways.
Judge rules federal immigration agents illegally arrested more than two dozen people in January
The federal judge ruled Tuesday on the arrests that happened during the early days of President Trump’s second term.
The ACLU of Illinois and other Chicago immigration advocates sued DHS and ICE in March, alleging the January arrests of 26 people in the Midwest violated a 2022 consent decree that bans ICE from arresting people without warrants or probable cause.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered ICE to start making monthly disclosures of how many warrantless arrests agents make each month.
“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 a justification for the action must end.”
Johnson says no ‘show votes’ on troop pay
House Speaker Mike Johnson is rejecting calls from some lawmakers for Congress to hold a stand-alone vote on paying military service members, who will potentially miss a paycheck next week if the shutdown isn’t resolved soon.
Johnson said the House already had that vote as part of a stop-gap 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 to pay our troops and our air traffic controllers and our border patrol agents, TSA and everybody else,’” Johnson said. “We did have that vote.”
“The House is done,” he added. “The ball is now in the Senate’s court. It does us no good to be here dithering on show votes.”
House Speaker says furloughed government workers should get backpay once shutdown ends
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s comments during a news conference at the Capitol on Wednesday follow the Trump administration’s warning of no guaranteed back pay for federal workers during a shutdown, potentially reversing what has been long-standing policy for some 750,000 furloughed employees.
Johnson said he had yet to dig into legal analysis that is the basis for the administration’s warning.
But he said it is tradition “and I think it is statutory law that federal workers be paid.”
“And I think they should be,” Johnson said.
Comey’s trial date is tentatively set for Jan. 5
The criminal case has thrown a spotlight on the Justice Department’s efforts to target adversaries of President Trump.
Comey pleaded not guilty through his lawyer to allegations that he lied to Congress five years go.
Former FBI Director James Comey has pleaded not guilty
Comey entered the not guilty plea through his lawyer at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, to allegations that he lied to Congress five years ago, kick-starting a process of legal wrangling in which defense lawyers will almost certainly move to get the indictment dismissed before trial, possibly by arguing the case amounts to a selective or vindictive prosecution.
Former FBI Director James Comey has arrived in court for arraignment
Comey is expected to plead not guilty during his appearance at federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Wednesday.
Comey’s arraignment is expected to be brief. But the moment is nonetheless loaded with historical significance given that the case has amplified concerns that the Justice Department is being weaponized in pursuit of President Trump’s political enemies and is operating at the behest of a White House determined to seek retribution.
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 hasn’t released details about the meeting scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Trump has said he plans to designate antifa, an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups, as a “major terrorist organization” but it’s not clear how that would work against the decentralized movement.
Trump calls for jailing Illinois governor and Chicago mayor as leaders oppose Guard deployment
The president said in a Wednesday morning social media post that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritkzer, both Democrats, “should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what Trump was specifically objecting to with his post, but it was the latest example of his brazen calls for his opponents to be prosecuted or locked up, a break from longtime norms as the Justice Department traditionally sought to maintain its independence.
Authorities said a woman was shot over the weekend in Chicago when Border Patrol vehicles were boxed in and struck by other vehicles.
Outside Chicago, in the village of Broadview, there have been skirmishes between protesters and agents outside a detention center.
Several of Comey’s family members have arrived in court ahead of the arraignment
They include his daughter Maurene, who was fired by the Justice Department earlier this year from her position as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, as well as Troy Edwards Jr., a son-in-law of Comey’s who minutes after Comey was indicted resigned his job as a prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia — the same office that filed the charges.
Federal government shutdown grinds into a second week, but quiet talks emerging
Tours at the Capitol have come to a standstill. The House is keeping its doors closed, while the Senate is stuck in a loop of failed votes on a rejected plan to reopen the government. President Trump is threatening to mass fire federal workers and refuse back pay for the rest.
As the government shutdown enters a second week, there’s no discernible endgame in sight.
The Republicans who have majority control in Congress believe they have the upper hand politically, as they fend off Democratic demands to quickly fund health insurance subsidies as part of any plan to end the shutdown. But so have Democrats dug in, convinced Americans are on their side in the fight to prevent the looming health care price spikes and blaming Trump for the shutdown.
Behind the scenes, though, signs of discomfort are apparent.
A loosely formed collection of senators, Republicans and Democrats, have bantered about options for addressing 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
Lawsuit against Trump’s Washington National Guard deployment exposes country’s deep partisan divide
A partisan battle is playing out in a Washington courtroom that could decide the fate of President Trump’s federal law enforcement intervention in the nation’s capital.
Dozens of states have taken sides in a lawsuit challenging the open-ended National Guard deployment in Washington, with their support falling along party lines. It shows how the law enforcement operation in the nation’s capital remains a flashpoint in the Republican president’s broadening campaign to send the military to cities across the country and underscores the deepening divisions over the move.
The lawsuit, filed Sept. 4 by Washington Attorney General Brian Schwalb, challenges the Trump administration’s use of the National Guard in the heavily Democratic city as part of an emergency order issued by Trump to stem what the president called “out of control” crime. Although the order has lapsed, hundreds of troops are still in the city, which is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the deployment.
▶ Read more about the lawsuit over federal intervention
Veteran defense lawyer turned judge oversees case against former FBI Director Comey
Michael Nachmanoff has built a quiet reputation in the federal courthouse in northern Virginia — a onetime public defender turned judge known for methodical preparation and a cool 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.
Confirmed to the bench by President Joe Biden in 2021, Nachmanoff was randomly assigned to the case after a Virginia grand jury indicted Comey last month on charges including obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The assignment instantly drew President Trump’s attention. Trump, long fixated on Comey, blasted him as a “Dirty Cop” and derided Nachmanoff as a “Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge” while celebrating the charges as “JUSTICE FOR AMERICA!”
Despite the political noise, lawyers who know Nachmanoff say he is unlikely to be swayed.
▶ Read more about Judge Michael Nachmanoff
Comey’s indictment two weeks ago followed an extraordinary chain of events
President Trump publicly implored Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against Comey and other perceived adversaries.
The Republican president also replaced the veteran attorney who’d been overseeing the investigation with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide who had never previously served as a federal prosecutor. Halligan rushed to file charges before a legal deadline lapsed despite warnings from other lawyers in the office that the evidence was insufficient for an indictment.
The two-count indictment alleges Comey made a false statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 30, 2020, by denying he had authorized an associate to serve as an anonymous source to the news media and that he obstructed a congressional proceeding. Comey has denied any wrongdoing and has said he was looking 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 round table on Antifa
