Lawyers for James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, sought on Thursday to dismiss the perjury and obstruction charges against him, arguing that federal prosecutors botched the indictment by misusing the grand jury process and by accusing him of telling a lie that he never actually told.
The motions, filed in Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., added to the panoply of legal challenges that Mr. Comey’s defense team has already raised against the indictment. Mr. Comey, who has long been a critic of President Trump, was charged last month under extraordinary circumstances: after Mr. Trump ousted the career U.S. attorney who was reluctant to file a criminal case and installed an inexperienced loyalist in his place.
Last week, in their opening round of legal briefs, the lawyers argued that the Trump administration had brought the charges as an act of vindictive retribution and also contested the appointment of the handpicked prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, who secured the indictment on her fourth day on the job.
The new filings gave Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff, who is overseeing the case, two additional reasons to throw out the charges — both of them related to the legal viability of the indictment. The lawyers also asked Judge Nachmanoff to force the government to provide them with what is known as a bill of particulars, a document that would add details to the bare-bones charges Mr. Comey is facing and describe with more specificity how prosecutors believe he broke the law.
The two-page indictment accuses Mr. Comey of lying to and obstructing Congress during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 30, 2020, that delved into his handling of the so-called Crossfire Hurricane investigation, which scrutinized ties between Russia and Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
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