Former FBI Director James Comey is scheduled to be arraigned in a Virginia federal court on Wednesday morning, several weeks after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of obstruction of justice and making a false statement.
Reports said Comey pleaded not guilty during his appearance Wednesday morning.
While the arraignment has drawn national attention, senior Justice Department officials on Tuesday dismissed reports suggesting that law enforcement planned to arrest Comey publicly or escort him theatrically into court, saying the proceedings will follow standard protocol.
“Mr. Comey has been directed to appear, and I expect that he will,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News. “The noise from MSNBC and from retired agents or unnamed anonymous sources about perp walks is just that. It’s just noise.”
The FBI was reportedly considering a “showy” arrest and perp walk of Comey — and the bureau has already suspended an agent who refused to take part, according to multiple sources cited by CBS News.
Comey was charged last month with lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. The move came after President Donald Trump publicly pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate his longtime adversary.
A grand jury indicted Comey on Sept. 25, and he was issued a summons to appear in federal court in Virginia on Oct. 9 for arraignment. His attorneys had agreed to bring him to court voluntarily, two sources said to CBS News.
But that same day, FBI leadership reportedly discussed hauling Comey in rather than waiting for him to appear on his own. A source familiar with the conversations told CBS News that leadership wanted “large, beefy” agents to carry out the arrest “in full kit,” including Kevlar vests and outerwear emblazoned with the FBI logo.
The plan, according to the source, was for a supervisory special agent in the violent crimes division of the Washington Field Office to assemble the team. However, the agent refused, believing such a display would be “inappropriate and highly unusual” for a white-collar defendant like Comey.
That agent was then suspended for insubordination, CBS News reported.
The FBI is said to be moving forward with efforts to put together another team to arrest Comey between now and his scheduled court appearance. However, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the situation, other supervisors have also refused to cooperate.
The charges allege that Comey lied during a Senate hearing five years ago when he claimed he had not authorized anyone at the FBI to serve as an anonymous source in media reports about investigations into Hillary Clinton. The indictment does not specify who he allegedly authorized or what the leak involved. Comey has denied any wrongdoing.
The indictment followed turmoil inside the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, where Comey was charged. The office’s lead prosecutor, Erik Siebert, resigned two weeks before the indictment. Trump then appointed his former personal attorney, Lindsey Halligan, as Siebert’s replacement. Within a week, Halligan asked a grand jury to indict Comey.
A Justice Department source told CBS News that some staff members in the office had circulated a memo arguing that Comey should not be charged. Two senior prosecutors in the Eastern District were also fired in recent weeks, according to CBS.
While the political and legal implications of Comey’s case are already significant, the debate over the FBI’s possible “showy” arrest has fueled even greater controversy — especially given the bureau’s past handling of high-profile arrests.
