A Joe Biden-appointed judge is set to preside over former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey’s criminal case.
The Department of Justice filed charges against Comey Thursday for perjury and obstruction of justice related to his handling of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
That evening, his case was randomly assigned to U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff, a 2021 Biden appointee to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Nachmanoff was confirmed by a 52-46 vote of the Senate in October 2021, receiving support from Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine.
He previously served as a public defender in the district before working as magistrate judge from 2015-2021.
During his time as a public defender, he successfully argued the 2007 Supreme Court case Kimbrough v. United States, which allowed district judges to impose lower sentences for dealing crack cocaine than those recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.
As a magistrate judge, Nachmanoff presided over the arraignment of two associates of Rudy Giuliani in a campaign finance violation case. He released them on a $1 million bond each.
Earlier this year, he allowed the Trump administration’s Central Intelligence Agency to fire a doctor who had advocated for mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations in the military.
Friday morning, Trump expressed his doubts as to whether Nachmanoff would fairly consider Comey’s case.
“Whether you like Corrupt James Comey or not, and I can’t imagine too many people liking him, HE LIED! It is not a complex lie, it’s a very simple, but IMPORTANT one. There is no way he can explain his way out of it. He is a Dirty Cop, and always has been, but he was just assigned a Crooked Joe Biden-appointed Judge, so he’s off to a very good start,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The DOJ alleges Comey lied in testimony to Congress, a charge that carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. In that testimony, Comey asserted that he had not authorized the leak of information on the Russian influence investigation to the media.
Comey’s arraignment is set for the morning of Oct. 9.
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