James Comey benefits from the swamp’s protection amid his indictment for lying to Congress.
The swamp never wastes time protecting its own, and James Comey is no exception. The disgraced former FBI director, who has finally been indicted for lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding, is already benefiting from the familiar playbook: put the right judge in place, create an appearance of fairness, and then quietly shield him from any real accountability.
On Thursday, following the grand jury indictment, Comey’s case was “randomly” assigned to U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff. In 2021, Joe Biden nominated Nachmanoff, and the Senate confirmed him to the federal bench with a razor-thin 52-46 vote, as three Senate Republicans — Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski — crossed over to support his confirmation.
If you believe that selecting Nachmanoff to preside over this case was truly random, then you haven’t been paying attention. Washington’s so-called “random assignments” seem to have a funny way of putting the most Trump-hostile judges on politically charged cases. Take Judge James Boasberg, a Barack Obama appointee, who just happened to land multiple Trump-related cases.