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Comey Pleads Not Guilty; Witkoff and Kushner in Egypt for Gaza Ceasefire Talks; Comey Makes First Court Appearance After Unprecedented Indictment. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 08, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news just minutes ago, Former FBI Director James Comey entered a not-guilty plea to federal charges. He is 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 Justice Department to prosecute him and other political rivals.

Back with us is CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez and CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. But first, I want to go to Crime and Justice Correspondent Katelyn Polantz. You were inside that courtroom. Take us inside the hearing, Katelyn.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam and Wolf, we had Jim Comey sitting in the middle of his two lawyers on one side and Lindsey Halligan, the U.S. attorney, sitting at counsel's table in the middle of two-line attorneys from the Justice Department in the courtroom. You don't often see that. The U.S. attorney herself in the courtroom looking at the judge, shaking her head yes every time the judge was asking questions of the government.

And actually, the way that the judge spoke to the government is something that you don't see very often in a case like this either. We did get a trial date. That trial date is going to be January 5th. So, that's less than three months from today. That's very fast. And the judge made clear he thinks that there will be no delays and that if there needs to be a resolution, even if the government thinks there's classified information in this case, he will resolve it quickly.

Some quotes from Judge Michael Nachmanoff, there should be no reason this case gets off track because of the existence of classified information. He also said that it doesn't appear to be an overly complicated case at this time. And then the other thing, Evan, Pam, Wolf, is that Comey's own counsel is saying, let's get it moving. We haven't seen any discovery at all. No evidence yet here. We're ready to go to trial. Let's move it fast.

And the prosecutor, when he came up to the judge to speak, not Halligan, a line prosecutor, he said, well, we're still going through classified information and discovery ourselves.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was a hearing that lasted about 25 minutes. This is a very fast hearing. It was very perfunctory. And one of the things we were waiting for, Katelyn, was the -- were the motions that were suggested by the defense that they were going to present to the judge. These are challenges, essentially, to have the case -- these charges tossed out. And one of the ones we were waiting for was the selective and vindictive prosecution, and also possibly the appointment of Lizzie Halligan.

You'll remember that, before this case was brought, the president fired the U.S. attorney, his own appointee, in this office, in part because there was some resistance inside this office to bringing this case, and then he appointed Halligan. And so, the question has been whether Halligan is legally appointed, because the previous occupant of the office had served the 120 days, which was the limit that he is allowed to serve.

So, the question is whether the judge will hear that. What did you hear in court today?

[10:30:00]

POLANTZ: So, the judge did set a date to hear arguments on that. It's going to be in November. that's whenever the meaty arguments will be in this case where Comey's team will try and attack the prosecution themselves saying that it's been vindictive, it's been selective, the case should be thrown out and that Lindsey Halligan shouldn't have a role to play.

There's also going to be a separate set of arguments, a separate set of motions from the defense, another round of attempts for them to get the case dismissed or cut back and those -- Comey's attorney, Pat Fitzgerald. indicated they're going to be just as much of an attack of the process of the Justice Department saying --

PEREZ: Pat Fitzgerald saying something about that there was outrageous government misconduct in this case, again referring to the president. We've talked so much about how this extraordinary role that President Trump has played in this case, not only posting those social media posts, calling for the case to be brought, but of course repeatedly commenting something that is very unusual in these cases and clearly, it's going to play a big role in this trial going forward.

POLANTZ: And, Evan, it's now before the judge on the record. Pat Fitzgerald standing at the podium in -- you'll see in the court transcript, says, our view is the prosecution was brought at the direction of President Trump.

PEREZ: Back to you, Pam and Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. I want to just quickly ask Katelyn, I take it that the judge did not ask for Comey to be detained while he awaits trial, is that right?

POLANTZ: That's correct. So, he's being released just on his signature alone, that's a personal recognizance bond. He was never under arrest. He was summoned to come to court today. And that's how it'll work going on from here. He's being ordered by the judge, you've got to come back for all of these additional appearances. And right now, there's only two other hearings on the calendar at this time. One in November, one in December for the government to argue everything to try and get this case tossed.

We'll get the rulings in writing from the judge. And then there's a trial date which they say it'll only take two to three days to get this through a trial and this is a court that moves fast.

BLITZER: And, Katelyn, very quickly, if he's convicted on these two felony charges, how much time in jail potentially could Comey face?

POLANTZ: Well, the maximum for these two counts that he faces, it's a five-year maximum prison sentence. That is extremely unlikely, essentially no one gets that and Comey would be, if he were to be convicted, a first-time offender. There's also a fine that would come with a sentence, but there's a lot of different options and probation would always be one. We often are not talking about custodial sentences when it comes to something like this, a false statement charge.

BLITZER: All right. Katelyn, thank you very much.

PEREZ: (INAUDIBLE) in court here, Wolf and Pamela.

BROWN: Yes, it really is. And there's so much about this that's unusual. I'm going to bring in Elie now to talk about that and pick apart a little bit about what you all reported. I mean, so first you have the Comey team putting out mid-January for a trial date, and that was fast, like wow that's really fast timeline. Then you have the judge saying, actually, let's do even earlier in January. And then, you have the judge predicting it'll be just two to three days.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST AND FORMER ASSISTANT ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: OK. A couple remarkable developments here. This trial is going to happen head-spinningly fast. It is 89 days from today and this is the opposite of the normal dynamic. Usually, defense lawyers want more time. They want more time to prepare. They're not available. Sometimes they want to drag it out for strategic purposes as we saw with Donald Trump and his prosecutions, for example.

Once in a rare while, and we saw this today, you will see a defendant go into court and say, I want my speedy trial rights. I want them now or, you know, as soon as possible and here we go. We're going to have a trial January 5th.

I'm actually -- even though this federal district, the Eastern District of Virginia, is known for moving cases quickly, I'm astonished at how quickly this is really going to go. Their typical case takes seven, eight months and here we're talking about just under three.

BROWN: And what about the two to three days timeline?

HONIG: My gosh, very interesting development. So,

BROWN: Yes.

HONIG: First of all, prosecutors generally, federal prosecutors, have a bad habit of over trying their cases, of spending way too long, of putting in too much extraneous details. So, this tells me two things. One, prosecutors understand they need to be focused here, but two, the case itself is quite narrow. It really gets back to whether Jim Comey lied when he testified to the Senate that he had not authorized an FBI leak. We talked about this before. We know, we both -- you know, we believe who the alleged leaker is, this guy Daniel Richmond. We know that the leaks allegedly were about Hillary Clinton's possession of an e-mail server.

But two to three days is a very short trial and I think the parties would be well served to stick to that and not drag it out. But look, there's a chance that the government could have gone in there today and prosecutors said, we need three weeks to try our case. The fact that it's two to three days shows that this is extremely narrow. It's based on one piece of testimony about one fact.

[10:40:00]

BLITZER: The judge made it clear that he does not want the parties to slow walk the fact-finding process leading up to the trial.

HONIG: Yes. So, the judge, what he was doing there, Wolf, was anticipating the types of delays that emerged. He didn't want the parties coming back in three weeks, and the defense saying the prosecution hasn't given us the discovery, has not given us the information we're entitled to. He also, the judge, made a point of saying, I don't think that there's security issues about classified documents, because sometimes that can slow cases down. So, the judge was signaling, this is not what we would call just a hold date or a temporary date, January 5th. This is a hard date. And he was anticipating today some of the speed bumps and saying, we're not doing that.

Everyone's going to be on point here. Prosecutors, you're going to turn over the documents you have to. You're going to do it promptly. We're not going to get sidetracked.

BROWN: And it is notable because when you look back at all the Trump cases, his team is trying to slow roll it, right, for their own purposes. In this case, Comey's team wants to speed it up.

HONIG: Important point, we talk about the speedy trial right, that is a constitutional right that belongs to the defendant. And so, Donald Trump and many other defendants say, fine, but I don't want a speedy trial. I want a slower trial. Comey wants a speedy trial. Maybe that tells you something about his level of confidence.

BROWN: All right.

BLITZER: He seems to be pretty confident. We'll see what happens. Elie, thank you very, very much. BROWN: Thank you, Elie.

HONIG: Thanks, guys.

BLITZER: Breaking news we're following -- more breaking news, new video just into CNN, where you can see the U.S. special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in Sharm el- Sheikh in Egypt right now for an expanded meeting to end the war between Hamas and Israel. Egyptian media reporting that Israel's chief negotiator, Ron Dermer, is also taking part in these ceasefire talks.

CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson is in Cairo for us right now. Nic, so where do these talks stand today?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, we know as well the Qatari prime minister, so top mediator on the Qatari side, the head of Egyptian intelligence, again, their top mediator. Mediator coming in as well to join the talks from Turkey, head of intelligence there, a key confidant very close to President Erdogan. So, you have a lot of key players coming into this now.

Also, on the Palestinian side, we're learning not just Hamas, but this evening, Palestinian Islamic Jihad are expected to have representatives of the proximity towards them, a much more hard line, if you will, than Hamas. And the Palestinian and the PFLP, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, they also will be in the talks.

So, you really have the top tier key players from the key countries. You have the majority of the bigger Palestinian groups from inside of Gaza. So, the opportunity is here. There is a sense of momentum. But some of the things that Hamas is asking for, like a guarantee from President Trump that if they hand over all the hostages, all 48 of them, that Israel won't go back to war. That's something we believe President Trump has not decided to do in the past when Hamas has asked for it before.

And a red line potentially for Israel is Hamas asking for the release of Marwan Barghouti, a very senior Palestinian politician seen as a unifying figure, not from Hamas, from the Fatah Party. That scene for Prime Minister --

BLITZER: All right. Nic Robertson reporting for us. Nic, thank you very, very much. Pamela.

BROWN: And coming up right here on the Situation Room, Democratic Senator Cory Booker joins us. We're going to get his take on how his party is handling the government shutdown that's now in its eighth day. You're in the Situation Room.

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[10:45:00]

BLITZER: We're following the breaking news. The former FBI director, James Comey's, first court appearance in the Alexandia Virginia just ended. He's entered a not guilty plea and his trial is set to begin January 5th. Comey is accused of providing false statements under oath and obstructing a congressional proceeding. Just a day ago, the attorney general of the United States, Pam Bondi, said this when senators asked her about the case. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I am not going to discuss pending cases because Comey was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia by, I may point out, one of the most liberal grand juries in the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And joining us now, the Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. He's on the Judiciary Committee and questioned Bondi yesterday. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. Before we get to the attorney general's testimony, as you know, James Comey has been a critic of the president and Trump has repeatedly attacked him since he fired him back in 2017. Comey's attorney says this case was, quote, "brought by President Trump." Do you see this case as political retribution?

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I mean, it is what Donald Trump has said it is. I've never seen anything like this, where he is literally going on Twitter to try to command his attorney general to do his bidding and go after his political enemies. Donald Trump is saying these things. We should believe him that this is what he's doing right now.

They've been using the Justice Department to go after people in politics. They arrested my mayor of my city, Newark, New Jersey, and the judge looked at the evidence and just laughed it out of the court and said, this is embarrassing to the Justice Department. Right now, they have charges against my congresswoman, Lamonica McIver. They are systematically going after their political enemies.

And even when noble agents, career agents, stand up and say things are wrong, they then get fired, like their attempt to do a perp walk with Comey as if that was necessary. So, this is a very dangerous time for America, where you have a president of the United States who does not respect the rule of law and believes that the Justice Department is an independent investigatory body, but is to do his bidding. This is a time we all must stand up and speak out against this.

[10:50:00]

BLITZER: As you know, Senator, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, was very combative with Democrats like you during her testimony, launching many personal attacks against your Democratic colleagues in what critics have called brazenly partisan behavior. I want to play just a little bit of that, of what we saw. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONDI: I'm not going to be lectured to you about integrity by someone who lied about being in the military.

Senator, I don't think a lot of people like that you were out protesting with Antifa.

I wish that you loved your state of California as much as you hate President Trump.

How dare you? I'm a career prosecutor. Don't you ever challenge my integrity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, Senator, what did you make of those exchanges? And can you conduct oversight of the Department of Justice right now?

BOOKER: I think the ranking member, Dick Durbin, said it the best, which is we have an obligation, a constitutional obligation to ask questions that give us insights into how a department and agency is being run. That is our job. We cannot let these important hearings deteriorate into a back and forth that doesn't go to the substance of the questions that were asked.

I had a lot of really legitimate questions about why, according to Cato, the conservative institute, are they transforming upwards of 40 percent of our FBI agents who are doing things like investigating sex crimes and corporate corruption and drug trafficking being shifted into immigration enforcement, ATF agents being shifted into immigration enforcement, where they're going after low-level offenders, raiding en masse agents out of unmarked cars, raiding schools and hospitals and court appearances? Why are we doing that as opposed to doing the things to keep guns off of our streets and violent predators off of our -- away from our communities?

And so, those questions are legitimate. And what bothers me the most about this is to watch the silence and complicity of my Senate Republican colleagues, who I know from serving with some of them for over a decade, that they know this behavior is wrong, they wouldn't tolerate it from a Democratic president. Why are they being silent right now and not doing what Congress is supposed to do, which is to provide a check and balance and oversight to the executive, especially at a time that our executive has become so extreme, so corrupt, so cruel, and so chaotic?

BLITZER: During that Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Democrats expressed deep concerns that the U.S. Justice Department is prosecuting President Trump's political opponents, something Bondi promised not to do during your confirmation hearings before the Senate. Many of your Republican colleagues argue that President Biden weaponized the Justice Department against Republicans. So, how do you respond to that?

BOOKER: President Biden never wrote e-mails -- or text messages, rather, or tweets calling out his attorney general, commanding or directing them to attack his political enemies. Donald Trump is way out of the main of anything we have seen coming from the White House in the modern era. He is all about defending the people who defend him, even if they are people who stormed this Capitol, beat savagely police officers. He will pardon you because you were doing his bidding. And if you don't do his bidding, he has already shown he has fired U.S. attorneys, fired FBI agents, fired career professionals who have the courage to stand up and talk truthfully about the law, and they're not willing to violate it. I'm sorry. We have never seen something like this in the modern era of a president willing to go to this kind of extremes to punish his political enemy, to abuse the law. It is wrong, and we need to start calling it because he is undermining the foundations of our democratic order.

BLITZER: While I have you, Senator Booker, I also want to get to another very sensitive issue. As you know, it's day eight now of this federal government shutdown. And as you also know, House Republicans have already passed a clean short-term funding bill that would keep the government open. But Senate Democrats have refused to support that House-passed bill.

I know you and other Democrats want to address the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year. But why not vote to fund the government, keep it open now, and negotiate on the health subsidies, which won't end for several more weeks, and let that play out in the coming weeks, but at the same time keep the government open?

BOOKER: I love that you asked this question, because it is not true that this is a clean CR. What we see for the last -- what we have seen for the last four years, why there was no government shutdown, when Democrats controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House, is they brought all the parties to the table, and we did it in a bipartisan process.

[10:55:00]

Donald Trump controls the White House. He has the most complicit set of Republicans in the House and the Senate. He controls them both. He has said in his own words in the past, it is up for the president of the United States to bring the parties together and get a budget passed. So, to be saying that this is the Democrats is utterly wrong. He holds the responsibility. And what are we standing up for? We're standing up for the twin tsunamis of health care disaster that will be hitting our country in a matter of weeks, because in his big, beautiful bill, when he benefited billionaires, he went after Medicaid. Millions will lose their health insurance.

And now, his intention, as he said in Project 2025, is to gut the Affordable Care Act. He's going to gut it, and people are going to see their premiums increase and millions more lose their health insurance. It'll be the biggest loss of insurance ever in this country. Millions of Americans seeing their health insurance go on or their premiums skyrocket.

All we're saying is make people's lives better. I talk to New Jerseyans every day about this. Yesterday, I talked to a mom who's making $30-something thousand dollars a year because she has to stay home and take care of her autistic child. She cannot afford the hundreds and hundreds of dollars of premium increases and still afford rent. This story is repeated thousands and thousands of times all across America.

We know that the Republicans want to give big tax cuts to billionaires. But the struggling families that need their help, they're seeing rising costs on groceries and energy and now health care. They need our help. We are standing up and fighting for them. And I am not apologetic about saying to Republicans, if you want my vote, you better help Americans deal with these rising costs of their health care.

BLITZER: But Senator, as you know, including in your State of New Jersey, a lot of federal employees will start missing paychecks and possibly be laid off permanently. There's been short-term staffing problems at major airports around the country, including in your State of New Jersey at Newark. Do you worry at all that prolonging the shutdown could backfire on Democrats?

BOOKER: Oh, I worry not about the politics, I worry about the people. Donald Trump has said in his own words, quote/unquote, he's using this shutdown to cause maximum pain. Remember, this is the guy with the chainsaw attacks already gutting USAID, gutting the Department of Education, costing my state millions and millions of dollars of investments to keep our streets safe, investments in local police departments, investments in big infrastructure programs.

Donald Trump doesn't care about the people. He cares about winning at all costs in his way only. It's not about bipartisan negotiation, he's about maximum pain, hurting people. He needs to end this shutdown now, come to the table and do something, something to help what is the major fear of millions of Americans and those Republicans and Democrats who run New Jersey hospitals, who are seeing their hospitals face a cataclysmic economic event if people are losing their health insurance.

Help people, that's all we're saying. All we're saying, bring everybody to the table and do something. Don't inflict maximum pain. Stop your cruelty. Stop singling people out, singling states out. Come to the table and govern in the way people want you to do, which is to solve problems.

BLITZER: Senator Cory Booker, thank you very much for joining us. Appreciate it very much. And we'll be right back.

BOOKER: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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