ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Michael Nachmanoff has built a quiet reputation in the federal courthouse in Northern Virginia — a public defender-turned-judge known for methodical preparation and a cool temperament. On Wednesday, he will find himself at the center of a political storm: presiding over the Justice Department’s prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey.
Confirmed to the bench by President Joe Biden in 2021, Nachmanoff was randomly assigned to the case after a Virginia grand jury indicted Comey last month for obstructing a congressional proceeding. The mission instantly took shape Donald Trump attention. The president, long fixated on Comey, derided him as a “dirty cop” and derided Nachmanoff as a “Joe Biden appointed judge” while celebrating the accusations as “Justice for America!”
Despite the political noise, lawyers who know Nachmanoff say he is unlikely to be swayed.
“Whatever his personal politics are, I don’t think they’re going into the courtroom,” said longtime Virginia defense attorney Nina Ginsberg, who tried the cases before him. “He’s confident enough in his ability to judge fairly that I don’t think he’s going to be influenced by politics or media coverage.”
Nachmanoff, 57, came to the bench after more than a decade as the top federal public defender in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he argued and won a Supreme Court case that helped narrow racial disparities in crack sentencing. He served six years as a magistrate judge, handling politically tinged cases. In 2019, he supervised the first appearances of Trump Ally Rudy Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, releasing them on $1 million bonds. Most recently, he refused to stop the CIA from firing Dr. Terry Adirim, a Pentagon doctor targeted by Trump allies on the Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
“He was an aggressive advocate, the type of lawyer who left no stone unturned,” Ginsberg said of the judge. She said he runs his courtroom in an impartial and respectful manner.
Timothy Belevez, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, said Nachmanoff was “always a worthy adversary.”
“It’s been a part of the courthouse for years and years and years,” Belevetz said. “He is very respected. He is very intelligent, he will shake up the parties, he listens to the arguments.”
Comey was charged late last month with lying to Congress. Days earlier, Trump appeared to urge Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute the former FBI director and other political enemies.
Comey himself acknowledged the political context but expressed confidence in the justice system. In a video after his indictment, he said: “My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great faith in the federal justice system, and I am innocent. So let’s have a trial.”
The clash between Trump and Comey has been building for years. Trump fired the FBI director in 2017, just months into his first term, as the bureau investigated Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Since then, the former president has repeatedly called for Comey’s prosecution and, in the days leading up to the indictment, publicly pressed Bondi to act.
For lawyers who have worked with Nachmanoff, this kind of political noise is unlikely to matter. They indicate its long record of independence and constitutional rigor. “Federal public defenders are renowned for their fidelity to the Constitution and due process,” said Lisa Wayne, executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
She said the White House should welcome Nachmanoff’s participation as a safeguard “against the emergence of partisan political attacks.”
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Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Eric Tucker and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.
