In a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia on Wednesday morning, October 8, former FBI Director James Comey entered a "not guilty" plea to two federal charges: lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. A trial date of January 5, 2026 was set.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz was present inside the courtroom during Comey's arraignment and later shared some takeaways with her colleagues Pamela Brown and Wolf Blitzer.

Outside the courthouse, Polantz told them that Comey's attorneys will try to get the case dismissed based on the argument that it is a "vindictive and selective" prosecution encouraged by President Donald Trump.

"There was another thing that came out in this hearing," Polantz continued. "The government side, the prosecutors, the Justice Department — they're not ready. They don't have all of the evidence gathered and have their hands around it at this time. That was what one of the prosecutors told the judge today. And they're still working on declassifying information…. But the judge made clear that he doesn't think this is complicated, and this should move very fast."

Polantz noted that "the plan of the defense" is to "challenge" the indictment "every way they can" and "how this prosecution was brought, how the indictment was brought." And one of things Comey's attorneys will question, according to Polantz, is the appointment of Lindsey Halligan — the prosecutor in the case.

Comey's attorneys, Polantz told Brown and Blitzer, will question Halligan's qualifications and whether she "is appropriately shepherding this prosecution, this case, through the system."

"They're going to try to get her tossed off," Polantz observed. "That's a way to toss the case."

After speaking to Polantz, Brown and Blitzer brought on CNN's Elie Honig — a former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor — for additional legal analysis of the hearing.

When Brown asked Honig "what stands out" to him, he responded, "So a few things. First of all, just how fast we're going to get to trial here: under three months. I'm sure it's happened in the history of the federal courts, but it's virtually unheard of. I don't know if I've ever, in my experience, seen a case get to trial that fast.… Jim Comey wants to go to trial. He wants to do it quickly. The fact that the trial is only going to be two or three days shows me that this is a very narrow issue. This all has to do with whether Jim Comey lied in that one bit of testimony that we saw from 2020, when he essentially said to (Sen.) Ted Cruz that he never authorized anyone to leak at the FBI."

Honig added, "This is not going to be a sprawling, weeks long case."

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