Former FBI Director James Comey sat stone-faced, staring straight ahead, as the nation's former top law enforcement officer appeared before a federal judge on Oct. 8 as a criminal defendant in a case with monumental significance.

The proceedings themselves in Northern Virginia were fairly routine. Over the course of a few minutes, a lawyer for the 64-year-old Comey entered pleas of not guilty to a pair of federal charges that his client had lied to Congress and obstructed a congressional proceeding in testimony he gave more than five years ago about his investigation into 2016 election interference. Comey was released without bail pending a trial scheduled for Jan. 5, 2026.

However, the underlying case has major ramifications. President Donald Trump has pushed the bounds of the

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