The federal judge who will oversee the case against James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, has a long history of working in the courthouse where the charges were brought, first as a law clerk, then a public defender, and now a jurist.
The random assignment of Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff of Federal District Court to the case sets the stage for a high-stakes trial in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Mr. Comey himself once worked as a prosecutor.
Judge Nachmanoff, a Biden appointee, was confirmed in 2021 by senators including Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who led the congressional hearing in September 2020 that is now at the center of the two-count indictment against Mr. Comey.
Mr. Comey is accused of lying to Congress when he denied authorizing anyone at the F.B.I. to share information anonymously with a reporter.
In the mid-1990s, Judge Nachmanoff clerked for one of the most well-respected judges in Northern Virginia, Leonie Brinkema. After a number of years in private practice, he went to the federal public defender’s office and came to oversee it in 2005, a position he held for the next decade.
As a public defender, Judge Nachmanoff counted among his clients Zachary Chesser, a Virginia man who pleaded guilty to encouraging violent jihadists to attack the creators of the animated show “South Park.” Mr. Chesser also admitted to providing material support to a terror group.
In 2015, Judge Nachmanoff left to become a federal magistrate judge, a job he held until being nominated by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
During his time as a magistrate, he caught a small taste of the legal drama stemming from Mr. Trump’s first term in office.
In 2019, he handled the arraignment of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two associates of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and lawyer for Mr. Trump, who were arrested and charged with funneling foreign funds into U.S. elections in support of Mr. Trump. The two became subjects of interest during the president’s first impeachment.
In his own writing, Judge Nachmanoff has sharply criticized inflexible sentencing rules, arguing in a 2009 article that mandatory minimums “inevitably result in disproportionately harsh punishments and unwarranted disparity.”
In 2007 he successfully argued before the Supreme Court that federal judges should have greater latitude to hand down shorter sentences in crack cocaine cases.
Zach Montague is a Times reporter covering the federal courts, including the legal disputes over the Trump administration’s agenda.
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