Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Now, Former FBI Director James Comey Being Arraigned; James Comey Trial Date Set for January 5 After Not Guilty Plea; Travelers Brace for Delays Amid Government Shutdown. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 08, 2025 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, James Comey in court. In moments, the former FBI direct jury will be arraigned on federal criminal charges. We're going to bring you all the latest developments.

Plus, government shutdown impacts air travel, how the stalemate in Washington is being felt at some airports across the country.

And then later, President Trump calls for the Chicago mayor to be jailed, and the mayor will join us to respond, just ahead.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And, quote, expanded meeting. Top U.S. and Israeli officials are meeting right now on President Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan. Is a breakthrough possible?

Plus, back pay on the chopping block. What the Trump administration and Congress are now saying about guaranteed pay for furloughed federal workers.

And later, new video of former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez. CNN is getting a look at what happened to in Indianapolis and new details on how his alleged victim is doing.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin right now with the breaking news. The former FBI director, James Comey, is in court and being arraigned on federal charges. He's accused of lying to Congress and obstructing a proceeding related to the FBI's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Comey was charged just days after President Trump publicly called on the U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, to prosecute him and other political rivals. Comey denies any wrongdoing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: But I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I'm innocent. So, let's have a trial and keep the faith.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's go live right now to CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez. Evan is outside the Federal Courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. Good morning, Evan.

Comey has just pleaded not guilty, I take it.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. He just entered his not guilty plea on those two felony counts. Obviously, history being made in that courtroom here on the sixth floor of the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia. Never -- we've never had an FBI director face felony criminal charges in federal court before. And what we have now is this arraignment process going underway. We expect that this is really the going to kick start, what will be a very fast series of actions by this judge.

This is Judge Michael Nachmanoff who's overseeing this case. And we're looking at a possible trial in as little as seven or eight months, Wolf, because this is a court that moves very quickly. You know that very well about this court.

Obviously, the president's role, the extraordinary role that the president has played in this case is looming large over all of this. We know that he fired the former U.S. attorney in this district, someone he had appointed himself, and then installed his former personal lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, to oversee this case. She's the one that presented it to the grand jury just under two weeks ago, and was able to get two of three counts approved by the grand jury.

Now, we expect that this hearing is probably going to be pretty short. One of the things that the judge is probably going to do is ask the defense and the prosecution for what motions they expect to present to the court. That includes, of course, the claim that the defense is likely to make that this is a case of selective and vindictive prosecution against Mr. Comey.

The fact that the president has been playing such a large role, commenting about the case, urging the Justice Department days before the case was brought, bringing -- saying on social media that he wanted, Trump, that he wanted the charges brought against James Comey. That's going to be a big part of this case going forward.

Again, we expect that this hearing will go on for just a less than an hour here in court.

BLITZER: All right, Evan Perez, Evan, stay with us. We're going to be checking back with you throughout the morning.

[10:05:00]

Pamela?

BROWN: All right. With us now is CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. All right, so, Elie, a little bit of news there, he has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He wants a jury trial. Let's just go to the beginning here. Who are the players? And why is this such an important case?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, Pam, the focus is going to be on Jim Comey, and it's really a surreal moment because this is a person who built his career as a federal prosecutor. He rose to the level of deputy attorney general of the United States, of course, then became the FBI director. Today, he is sitting on the opposite side of the courtroom at the defendant's table.

Next to him is his defense lawyer, Pat Fitzgerald. Now, this may be a familiar name. He was special counsel on a very big case about 15 years ago. The two of them grew up together as prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. Pat Fitzgerald's a courtroom legend. The trials that he did, he took down international terrorists, mobsters, he will now be defending his friend, Jim Comey.

Now, over at the prosecutor's table, we have the brand new U.S. attorney handpicked by Donald Trump to replace the prior U.S. attorney who refused to charge this case, Lindsay Halligan. It is exactly her 13th day today as a prosecutor. She's got two other more experienced prosecutors working under her on this case. And then the judge, Judge Michael Nachmanoff, a Biden appointee, his background actually is as a public defender in the federal system.

Now, this case is about so much more than Jim Comey. It's about presidential power and the independence of the Justice Department. We all remember this post by Donald Trump from about two weeks ago where he posted publicly to the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and said, what about Comey, Adam Shifty Schiff, Letitia James? They're all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done. And then concluded, they impeached me twice and indicted me five times over nothing. Justice must be served now.

That is why this is such a big deal. For the first time we have a president directing an attorney general to go after his political opponents, and that's what's happened here.

BROWN: All right. So, what charges is James Comey facing here?

HONIG: Yes. So, the charges here relate back to testimony that Jim Comey gave to the Senate in September of 2020, specifically in response to questions from Ted Cruz. And, by the way, if you're wondering why this case is in Virginia, it's because Jim Comey gave that testimony from his home that you see here over Zoom. That's why we're in Virginia, not D.C.

Now, Comey is charged with two counts, one for false statements, one for obstruction. The allegation is that Jim Comey lied when he testified he had never authorized a leak from the FBI when he was director. The indictment says that that statement that he never authorized a leak was false because, as Comey knew, he had in fact authorized person three, we'll get back to that in a second, to serve as a leak in an investigation regarding person one.

So, who are these mysterious persons one and three? Person one, really important point, it's Hillary Clinton they were leaking about. Not Donald Trump. The leaks allegedly were about Hillary Clinton's possession of a private email server, and the person three who the government alleges Jim Comey authorized to leak was Daniel Richmond, a personal friend, a Columbia law professor and a person who worked at the FBI as a consultant under Jim Comey. So, that's who we're talking about.

By the way, there's no person two because the count that mentioned person two was rejected by the grand jury. It's not even in this case anymore.

BROWN: All right. And so we know from today he's asking for a jury trial. You say that's not surprising.

HONIG: Right. So, what's already happened is he's been arraigned. Jim Comey's been arraigned, meaning he's been advised of the charges against him. He has entered a plea of not guilty. There is this technical moment where you can say, I don't want a jury trial. I want you, Judge, to decide the case, but almost everybody insists on the rights to a jury. Jim Comey has done that here. They'll make sure he has an attorney, the aforementioned Pat Fitzgerald, he does have an attorney. They'll set bail, he will be released. There won't be any bail conditions.

But this is really what I'm watching for and this is what's happening perhaps as we speak in the coming minutes. They're going to set a schedule and the judge is going to say, what types of motions will you bring? We should learn will Jim Comey move to dismiss this case for vindictive or selective prosecution? And most importantly -- we should not all judges do this, but we should get a trial date set today. So, we will know when to mark off on our calendars because this case is almost certainly heading to a jury and a trial and we should have a sense of when that is any minute now.

BROWN: All right. We are watching it. Thank you so much, Elie Honig. And, Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: All right. I want to go quickly back to Evan Perez. He's outside the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, right now. I understand. Evan, you're getting some new information.

PEREZ: That's right, Wolf. Right now, the Comey team has asked for a jury trial on January 12th. That's just four months a, a away, which is extraordinarily fast. And, really, that's part of the strategy that you would have on the defense side, you want to go quickly to trial in part because it could force the government to make mistakes between now and then. We've seen that happen before in these federal cases where prosecutors, because of the quick nature under which they have to prepare to get to trial, they could make mistakes.

And keep in mind, this is a trial team, these are lawyers that only yesterday entered this case.

[10:10:04]

They have not been involved. These are lawyers from North Carolina that were brought on by the U.S. attorney here, Lindsey Halligan, to join her team in bringing this case to trial. Again, if the judge accepts this trial date, that's extremely fast. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Evan, thanks for that update. Evan Perez, outside the courthouse in nearby Virginia.

Still ahead, the New Jersey Democratic senator, Cory Booker, joins us after questioning the attorney general, Pam Bondi, about James Comey's indictment.

BROWN: And then later, staffing shortages plague air tropic controllers, the impacts travelers could see today.

You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00]

BROWN: All right. I want to go right out to our Evan Perez. He's standing outside that federal courthouse in Alexandria for former FBI Director James Comey's arraignment, because we have some news, right, Evan?

PEREZ: That's right, Pamela. The judge just set a trial date of January 5th. That's less than three months from now that James Comey is set to go on trial on these two felony counts. His attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, stood in court, said, this is the honor of my life to represent James Comey. Of course, the two of them are very close friends. Pat Fitzgerald's the legendary former prosecutor at the Justice Department.

And so this case, Pamela, is moving very, very quickly. We expect again that this is going to take two to three days, the judge said. He expects trial to take about two to three days. And, again, it is set for January 5th. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. That's a faster timeline than what the Comey team had asked for, for mid-January. So, that is notable that, that the judge then said it for January 5th.

All right, Evan Perez, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: And we're also learning new details about the ban assigned to oversee the case against Comey, Judge Michael Nachmanoff. CNN Special Correspondent Jamie Gangel is joining us right now.

Jamie, I know you've been speaking with a lot of people who actually know this judge. What are they saying about him?

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: So legal sources who've worked with him, who know him, by the way, we spoke to lawyers who both won cases and lost cases in front of him, say that he is unflappable, that he is apolitical. They say he runs a tight courtroom. He's always prepared by the book. I think it's notable the January 5th date that Evan just mentioned. Judge Nachmanoff prides himself on being prepared. He also frequently starts cases early. The arraignment was actually supposed to be tomorrow. It was today. The defense asked for the 12th. It's the 5th. Virginia is known for its rocket docket, but there's no question we've seen right away that the judge is going to keep this moving.

BROWN: Yes, it is notable, you know, January 5th to set the trial date then. Of course, Donald Trump, for his part, has already gone after the judge. How is the judge preparing for the onslaught of attacks he's sure to face during this trial.

GANGEL: So, Judge Nachmanoff, I'm told, and this would be true of any judge, they've seen what President Trump has done in the past. It is not a surprise. And, in fact, as you point out on day one, President Trump attacked Nachmanoff. Nachmanoff was randomly assigned to this case, but he is a Biden appointee. And President Trump said on Truth Social, he called him, quote, crooked Joe Biden-appointed judge, and said that former -- the FBI director, Comey, was off to a good start because of that.

It was interesting immediately after that, retired Federal Appeals Court Judge Michael Luttig, who's been a fierce critic of President Trump, came out and defended Nachmanoff. And he said the judge is, quote, beyond all reproach and he will be impervious to Trump's attacks.

But what you say is correct, Pamela. There is one person who's not going to be in the courtroom but who is absolutely having a huge impact every single day, and that's President Trump. This is his case.

BROWN: He's always looming over it, right?

GANGEL: Right.

BROWN: Thank you so much, Jamie Gangel, good to see you. First time here in the new Situation Room.

All right, coming up, neighbors take action. The confrontation caught on camera between U.S. Border Patrol agents and Chicago residents. What happens next may surprise you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, travelers across the United States are bracing right now for possible delays as air traffic control towers have seen major staffing shortages this week. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were the last flight to leave Atlanta to come back to O'Hare, so we knew we were going to be delayed, and we didn't know when we were going to get here actually. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On a plane, unfortunately, I found that my flight to Cleveland had been pushed back for two and a half hours. So, I'll be here with you a little longer today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Air traffic controllers are considered essential workers, so they're required to work without pay during the government shutdown. But Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says more controllers are calling out sick. And with staffing already tight, even a small number of controllers taking unscheduled time off can cause major disruptions.

Joining us now from Reagan National Airport just outside of Washington, D.C., is CNN's Pete Mutnean. Pete, you know this issue. Just how bad are these shortages and how much is that impacting flight delays right now?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're not totally out of the woods just yet, Wolf, on day eight of the shutdown, and the Federal Aviation Administration is holding a planning teleconference, a conference call in about an hour's time.

We know that Newark Approach Control, a facility that has been plagued by problems and staffing shortages for months now, was a concern earlier today during the morning shift because of short staffing, that has now dropped off the list, although on Tuesday we saw so many air traffic control facilities on the list of concern by the FAA that we typically don't see on the list.

[10:25:03]

We're talking Houston, Dallas, Boston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia.

And then there were the really big staffing problems that the delays at some of the country's busiest airports at Chicago O'Hare. There was a ground delay program put in place. About a quarter of all flights delayed at Chicago O'Hare yesterday, a huge hub for American Airlines and United Airlines. Also at Nashville International Airport, the approach control facility there had to close down for about five hours, and the slack picked up by the control tower and the center facility in Memphis because of that.

Not as dramatic as what we saw on Monday though. That's when the control tower at Hollywood Burbank International Airport closed down for several hours, a condition known as ATC Zero, essentially turning that large airport into what would be an uncontrolled airport that's typically used at smaller airfields around the country.

I want you to listen now to NACA Union President Nick Daniels. He says, this is not part of some coordinated sickout, but you have to remember that 11,000 air traffic controllers are working without pay essentially right now in this government shutdown. There's already a nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers and just a few of them, a handful of them, calling out sick can have an outsized impact. Listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK DANIELS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: Politicians are the only people that can end to shutdown down. What you're going to see is the stress, pressure, and fatigue that air traffic controllers have to contend with, the very difficult world of managing this system already critically staffed, and then wondering where our pay is going to come from and having that steady stream of income, that's the impact that I'm worried about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy insists that flying is safe right now, and the Federal Aviation Administration will put into place these delays in case of a decrease in safety. They have to make it safe by putting into place these delays.

By the way, air traffic controllers got their last full paycheck just this last Tuesday. Next Tuesday, they get one more paycheck, but it's a partial paycheck for work they have already done before the government shutdown begins. That'll be their last one. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, the day seven of this government shutdown. It's only going to get worse if it goes on day after day after day.

Pete Muntean, thank you very, very much. Pete's over at Reagan National Airport. Pamela?

BROWN: A busy morning here in The Situation Room, Wolf. We're still following the breaking news. Former FBI Director James Comey has pleaded not guilty to charges of providing false statements and obstructing a Congressional proceeding. We are live right outside the federal courthouse in Virginia with new details just into CNN, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]