Judge Assigned to Fired FBI Director James Comey’s Case

A federal judge has been assigned to oversee the criminal case against fired FBI Director James Comey, setting the stage for one of the most closely watched legal battles involving a longtime critic of President Donald J. Trump.

U.S. District Judge Louise W. Flanagan of the Eastern District of North Carolina has scheduled Comey’s trial for Oct. 21.

The case follows new charges issued by the U.S. Department of Justice in late May.

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina indicted Comey in April, alleging that an Instagram image featuring seashells arranged in an “86 47” pattern amounted to “a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States.”

Trump is both the 45th and 47th president of the United States.

Comey’s defenders have argued that the number sequence is being misread, pointing to restaurant terminology in which “86” is commonly used to mean that an item is unavailable or should be removed from service. Restaurant veterans have said “86” is “everyday lingo” that can mean an item has run out or should be removed from the menu.

The trial had previously been expected in July, but the schedule was delayed after Comey’s legal team asked for more time last week, arguing that some of their expected claims “may require extensive briefing.”

Comey and his attorneys are expected to file motions seeking dismissal of the case. Their arguments are expected to include claims that the prosecution is vindictive and selective. Flanagan referenced those anticipated motions in her Tuesday order.

If the case survives the expected dismissal efforts, Comey is scheduled to appear for arraignment on Sept. 30 at the federal courthouse in New Bern, North Carolina.

Flanagan, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, is considered right-leaning, according to Ballotpedia.

The judge received the case through random assignment after the grand jury returned the indictment.

Flanagan has handled thousands of cases during her tenure as an Article III judge. The U.S. Senate confirmed her to the federal district court in July 2003.

Before joining the district court, she served as a federal magistrate judge and worked at the law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Washington, D.C., before the firm later merged with Dentons, the ABA Journal reported.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview last weekend that the indictment was not based solely on the Instagram post and instead followed a year-long investigation.

“Every case requires an investigation, and what you just showed is one part of that investigation. What you just showed is the Instagram post,” he told Fox News.

“Rest assured that the career Assistant United States Attorneys in North Carolina, the career FBI agents, the career Secret Service agents that investigated this case didn’t just look at the Instagram post and walk away,” he continued.

“That’s why you saw an indictment last week, notwithstanding the fact that it was last May that the post was made. So I am not permitted to get into details of what the grand jury heard or found, as you know, but rest assured that it’s not just the Instagram post that leads somebody to get indicted,” Blanche added.

The North Carolina case is not the only legal trouble facing Comey.

Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have reportedly revived a previously dormant investigation into whether Comey illegally leaked classified information through a trusted media intermediary, according to two people familiar with the matter.

That investigation centers on Comey’s decision to provide sensitive memos documenting his private conversations with then-President Trump to Columbia University Law Professor Daniel Richman, who later shared the material with The New York Times.

Those disclosures formed the foundation of a May 2017 front-page story that helped fuel the Russia collusion narrative during Trump’s first term.

If the revived probe leads to charges, it would represent another criminal front against Comey, who has long been viewed by conservatives as a central figure in the federal bureaucracy’s campaign against Trump.

The potential Virginia case would come on top of the Florida review of a broader conspiracy matter and the North Carolina grand-jury indictment returned April 28 over the alleged social-media threat against the president.

For conservatives, the Comey case is about far more than a single Instagram post. It is another test of whether powerful figures who played major roles in the anti-Trump era will finally face the same legal scrutiny ordinary Americans would face.

Comey’s legal team is preparing to fight the charges aggressively, but the Justice Department is signaling that prosecutors believe the case rests on more than public speculation over a social-media image.

With a trial date now on the calendar, one of the most polarizing former law enforcement officials in modern American politics is moving closer to his day in court.