Friends and family filled a Norfolk courtroom Friday for New York Attorney General Letitia James’ arraignment. James entered through a side door, leaned forward and smiled toward the gallery.
Two friends told CNN they attended to support James, and relatives lined the back row.
U.S. District Judge Jamar Walker called James to the podium with her attorney, Abbe Lowell, and advised her of her rights. She responded, “Yes, judge,” acknowledging she understood her right to remain silent and to counsel. Back at the defense table, Walker asked how she would plead. Lowell said James would speak for herself.
“Not guilty, judge, to both counts,” James said.
Roger Keller, a U.S. attorney from Missouri, represented the Justice Department. Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who secured the indictment, sat in the third chair at the prosecution table and did not address the court, speaking only to confirm the government had a copy of a pretrial report.
After the hearing, she said she “will not be deterred” by the case.
“There’s no fear today, no fear,” she told reporters outside the federal courthouse as protesters chanted nearby. “Because I believe that justice will rain down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
She criticized the prosecution, calling the justice system a “tool of revenge” used “against those individuals who simply did their job and who stood up for the rule of law.”
