WASHINGTON — James Comey, the former FBI director targeted by President Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he lied to Congress. His lawyer said he would move to quickly dismiss the case, calling it a “vindictive” and “selective” prosecution.

Comey stood his full 6-foot-8 height to offer his plea, and a “thank you very much,” to District Judge Michael Nachmanoff during a brisk court appearance that began five minutes early and lasted less than half an hour.

If the hearing offered a guide to the defense’s strategy, it revealed little new about a case deemed so weak by career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia that they refused to have anything to do with it. That reluctance forced the White House to quickly insert a stand-in U.S. attorney to file the indictm

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