Comey
seeks to have indictment tossed, arguing senator's questions were
"confusing," "ambiguous"
By
Melissa Quinn
Updated on: October 30, 2025 / 4:50 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington —
Former FBI Director James Comey is urging a federal court to dismiss the two
federal charges brought against him over allegedly false testimony he gave to
Congress in September 2020. He's arguing that the questions he answered, which
were asked by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, were "confusing" and
"fundamentally ambiguous."
In a new filing with the
court in Alexandria, Virginia, Comey's lawyers argued that his testimony in
response to Cruz's questions was "literally true" and cannot support
a conviction. The former FBI director's legal team suggested that the
government is attempting to try Comey on "cherry-picked statements"
given during a four-hour long Senate hearing without specifying which parts of
his testimony it believes were false or misleading.
They argued that while the government
has the authority to prosecute witnesses who mislead federal investigators by
giving false answers to clear questions, "it does not authorize the
government to create confusion by posing an imprecise question and then seek to
exploit that confusion by placing an after-the-fact nefarious interpretation on
the ensuing benign answer."
Comey's lawyers also asserted that
"basic due process principles in criminal law require that the questioner
frame his questions with clarity so that a witness does not have to
guess."
A federal grand jury in Alexandria
indicted Comey late last month on charges he lied to Congress and obstructed a
congressional investigation. The alleged offenses stem from testimony Comey
gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to
both counts.
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Comey has already
filed one tranche of motions with
the court that argue the indictment should be tossed out on the grounds that it
is based on a vindictive and selective prosecution. He is also challenging the
validity of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan's appointment to that
role.
Comey's lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald,
said in one of those filings that he would seek to dismiss at least the first
count of the indictment — the allegation that Comey lied to Congress — because
of Cruz's questioning.
In addition to his latest bid to have
the charges dismissed, Comey's lawyers are asking for more details about
the conduct underlying the two counts. They are claiming the indictment is
"sparse" and has a "total absence of factual allegations."
The indictment against Comey
references an exchange the former FBI director had with an unnamed senator,
believed to be Cruz, during the Judiciary Committee hearing more than five
years ago. During the questioning, Cruz asked Comey about testimony he gave in
May 2017, in which the former FBI chief was questioned about whether he had
ever been an anonymous source or authorized anyone to be an anonymous source
about matters relating to investigations into President Trump and former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was the Democratic presidential nominee
in 2016.
Cruz then referenced
comments from Andrew McCabe, who was Comey's deputy at the FBI, and claimed
McCabe publicly said that Comey authorized him to leak information to the
press.
"Now, what Mr. McCabe is saying
and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true; one or the other
is false. Who's telling the truth?" Cruz asked Comey.
Comey said in response, "I can
only speak to my testimony. I stand by what, the testimony you summarized that
I gave in May of 2017."
Cruz reiterated that Comey was
testifying that he "never authorized to leak. And Mr. McCabe when if he
says contrary is not telling the truth, is that correct?"
"Again, I'm not going to
characterize Andy's testimony, but mine is the same today," Comey replied.
But prosecutors have claimed that
Comey's testimony was false because he authorized Daniel Richman, a longtime
friend of his, to serve as an anonymous source in news reports about the FBI
investigation involving Clinton.
The government confirmed to Comey's
lawyers that an unidentified individual referred to as "Person 3" in
the indictment is Richman. A Columbia University law professor, Richman is a
former federal prosecutor who also served as a "special government employee" at
the FBI when Comey was director.
Richman has not been
charged with any wrongdoing. His name also did not come up in the exchange that
appears to have led to the charges against Comey.
In their bid to have the indictment
dismissed, Comey's lawyers said that any false-statements charge that rests on
an interpretation of a "fundamentally ambiguous question" must be
dismissed.
"Fundamental to any false
statement charge are both clear questions and false answers," they wrote.
"Neither exists here."
Comey's lawyers argued that a
"reasonable person" would've interpreted Cruz to be asking only about
whether the former FBI chief had authorized McCabe to be an anonymous source,
rather than broadly inquiring about Comey's interactions with anyone at the
FBI.
"The indictment contains no
allegations that Mr. Comey's answers were false: it never alleges that Mr.
Comey made a false statement regarding Mr. McCabe," they wrote. "On
the contrary, the indictment omits Senator Cruz's statements about Mr. McCabe,
obscuring the context necessary to understand both the questions themselves and
Mr. Comey's responses."
Comey's legal team reiterated that he
maintains that his 2017 testimony was truthful, but was also argued that his
"statement that he stood by his prior testimony was truthful regardless of
whether that prior testimony was itself truthful."
