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Hello, welcome to the program. This is News Hour from the BBC World Service coming to you live from London. I'm Paul Henley.

Washington and Chicago today were the focus of President Trump's offensive against his Democrat opponents.

We'll be talking in a moment about the arrival of federal troops in Chicago

and about the latest war of words against two leading local politicians there.

First, the former director of the FBI, James Comey, was in court in Virginia just across the river from Washington, D.C.,

to plead not guilty to charges brought against him in a federal court of lying to Congress.

He's asked for a jury trial, and he will get one.

In January, President Trump is firmly behind the prosecution.

Mr. Comey led the FBI when he was investigating

alleged contact between Mr. Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russian contacts.

Now, the BBC's North America correspondent, Nomia Iqbal, has been outside the court today.

I asked her what exactly Mr. Comey was accused of.

Well, the charges against James Comey legally have very little substance in the sense that

essentially he's accused of lying in a congressional testimony back in 2020 about whether

or not he leaked classified information to a reporter.

He denies it, but the accusation is that he lied in that testimony.

That is what it comes down to.

But as I say, the substance, legal substance of it is pretty sparse.

The indictment itself is about two pages long. And so the bigger question here,

really, is why James Comey was charged. And the indictment against him is seen as a culmination,

really, of Donald Trump's efforts to come true on his promise to go after Mr Comey, someone he is long disliked.

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