The federal judge assigned to James Comey’s criminal case might be overseeing the most high-profile and politically fraught trial in President Donald Trump’s second time period.
But US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff’s fourth-degree black belt in Shotokan Fudokan karate will undoubtedly come in useful as the nation and the White House scrutinize his each transfer in the Comey case. Shotokan karate emphasizes the want to stay calm below strain.
In interviews with NCS, individuals who know and have labored with Nachmanoff, together with legal professionals who’ve appeared earlier than him, describe the judge as an unflappable jurist who is notably well-equipped to deal with the Comey case – and the consideration it would convey to his courtroom.
Nachmanoff, an appointee of former President Joe Biden whose courthouse is in Alexandria, Virginia, has set Comey’s arraignment for Wednesday morning. The former FBI director was indicted final month on federal costs of giving false statements and obstruction of a congressional continuing for allegedly mendacity to Congress throughout testimony in 2020.
Comey is anticipated to plead not responsible.
The case was introduced lower than every week after Trump publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political rivals — particularly naming Comey. That additionally got here after Trump compelled out the US Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, who had resisted calls for that he convey costs towards Trump’s perceived enemies.
In addition to the strain of presiding over high-profile case, a supply conversant in Nachmanoff says he is conscious of safety issues and the way Trump has attacked judges, their households and courtroom workers in the previous.
After Nachmanoff, 57, was randomly assigned Comey’s case, Trump attacked him that day. The president blasted him on Truth Social, calling him a “Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge” and saying the former FBI director was “off to a very good start.”
In response, retired federal appeals court docket Judge J. Michael Luttig got here to Nachmanoff’s protection, saying in a press release to NCS that the judge is “beyond all reproach” and that “he will be impervious” to Trump’s assaults.
Throughout his profession, Nachmanoff has earned a status as a considerate and truthful arbiter who is extensively revered in Virginia’s authorized neighborhood, in response to sources who spoke to NCS. Before being appointed as a district court docket judge, he served as a Justice of the Peace judge in the identical courthouse.
Legal sources who’ve each gained and misplaced instances earlier than Nachmanoff described him as a judge whose private views are well-guarded and who is unlikely to additional inflame the environment round Comey’s prosecution, which has already elicited intense response.
“I would call him an apolitical judge,” mentioned Kevin Carroll, a Virginia lawyer who failed earlier this yr to get Nachmanoff to problem an emergency court docket requiring the momentary reinstatement of his shopper, a health care provider at the CIA who claims she was pushed out of her job following strain from conservatives.
“The judge hasn’t brought politics into it at all,” Carroll added. “It’s just been straight legal discussion.”
Robert Jenkins, a longtime white-collar protection lawyer who has represented shoppers earlier than Nachmanoff, mentioned the judge “is committed to getting things right and making sure that justice is served.”
“When I learned about the case being assigned to him, I had a great sense that if this is just a politically motivated prosecution, he will discover the right way to deal with it, to make sure that justice is served,” Jenkins added. “If there is some true merit to the allegations contained in the indictment, I think he will do likewise, because he is fair and committed to doing the right thing.”
Nachmanoff declined NCS’s request for remark.
‘Fair, thoughtful and always prepared’
Nachmanoff was one in every of Biden’s earliest judicial picks. His nomination acquired bipartisan assist in the Senate, with three Republican senators voting alongside Democrats in 2021 to verify him to the lifetime place.
Since then, whereas he’s managed to maintain a comparatively low profile on the bench, he has presided over a number of instances that made headlines.
In addition to the CIA firing case, Nachmanoff oversaw a jury trial in 2024 that resulted in the conviction of a former well being care employee who illegally accessed the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s medical information.
And as a Justice of the Peace judge, Nachmanoff got here inside a couple of levels of the authorized drama surrounding Trump’s first time period in workplace.
In 2019, he dealt with preliminary court docket proceedings for Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two associates of Trump ally Rudy Giuliani who have been charged with campaign-finance associated crimes. Nachmanoff ordered every man to be launched on a $1 million secured bond.
Legal sources mentioned the judge has a no-nonsense method to proceedings and is revered for his rulings, no matter how they fall.
“He is well-liked whether you win or lose because he’s fair, thoughtful and always prepared,” mentioned one lawyer conversant in his status.
Nachmanoff additionally runs a decent courtroom.
“He has a high expectation of how the lawyers and parties should conduct themselves before the court,” Jenkins mentioned, including that the judge could have little endurance for “inflammatory-type tactics.”
That method matches the congeniality the Virginia bar is recognized for, one thing Nachmanoff himself has acknowledged is needed for the administration of justice.
“Ultimately, judging is about fairness and respect – being fair and respectful to the litigants, the lawyers, the public and the court staff,” Nachmanoff mentioned in an interview a decade in the past.
Despite his demeanor and expertise, Nachmanoff might must rule on some troublesome and unusual motions.
Legal sources have raised the risk that due to Trump’s public assaults on Comey, and the notion that the case is being introduced as political revenge, Comey’s protection crew might ask to depose the president himself, in addition to Bondi and different Justice Department officers.
Even earlier than he started dealing with instances as a judge in Alexandria, Nachmanoff was no stranger to the federal courthouse there.
Prior to changing into a Justice of the Peace judge, he labored for greater than a decade in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of Virginia, together with for a time as the head of that workplace. One supply near Judge Nachmanoff describes him as “a Renaissance man” and says he is a voracious reader who has coached youth softball and volleyball and along with his black belt in karate, sometimes performs the bass guitar with a neighborhood band.
Born in Washington, DC, and raised in Northern Virginia, Nachmanoff attended the University of Virginia School of Law. Following commencement, he clerked for US District Judge Leonie Brinkema, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton who stays one in every of simply 4 full-time judges in the Alexandria courthouse.
“He’s definitely the ultimate EDVA insider,” mentioned an lawyer who has appeared earlier than Nachmanoff.
That prolonged relationship, the lawyer mentioned, has produced a jurist who’s helped sustain the district’s status for having a “rocket docket” that places a excessive premium on velocity.
“He’s more alert to deadlines and not wanting to give you continuances than other courts (are),” the lawyer mentioned of Nachmanoff.
The method may very well be particularly vital for Comey, who could have the alternative to ask the judge to dismiss the costs forward of trial by arguing that he’s being unfairly prosecuted.
Such a request – which is not often granted – can be amongst the most consequential points Nachmanoff might have to resolve in Comey’s case.
“It’s difficult for me to imagine someone who could be more prepared to handle those types of complex motions that are undoubtedly expected to come early in the case,” Jenkins mentioned.
Should Comey go to trial, Nachmanoff will even be tasked with making selections regarding proof, jury choice and, if prosecutors safe a conviction, Comey’s sentence.
Decisions on sentencing are acquainted territory for Nachmanoff, who as a public defender argued and gained a essential case earlier than the Supreme Court on sentencing tips. The case, Kimbrough v. US, raised questions on how a lot discretion federal judges have in sentencing defendants in crack cocaine instances.
The excessive court docket, in a 7-2 resolution authored by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2007, sided with Nachmanoff and his client, giving decrease court docket judges the discretion to provide “reasonably” shorter jail phrases for crack-cocaine crimes, which had traditionally been larger than these doled out in instances involving the powdered selection.
In 2015, Nachmanoff mirrored on that case.
“I was an advocate for sentencing discretion being placed with judges and moved away from prosecutors and advocates. Now that I’m a judge, I believe even more firmly the discretion rests with judges,” Nachmanoff said at the time.