Justice Dept. interesting choice tossing James Comey, Letitia James instances due to prosecutor’s appointment

Washington — The Justice Division stated Friday it should attraction a pair of selections tossing out the felony instances in opposition to former FBI Director James Comey and New York Legal professional Basic Letitia James on the grounds that Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor who secured the indictments in opposition to them, was unlawfully appointed to her position as interim U.S. lawyer.

The attraction was anticipated, because the White Home and Legal professional Pam Bondi had indicated that the Trump administration would ask the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to overview final month’s rulings from U.S. District Decide Cameron Currie. However it comes as Halligan and Justice Division legal professionals have to date twice didn’t safe a brand new indictment in opposition to James.

Halligan’s title is on the notices of attraction, and she or he is listed as “United States lawyer and particular lawyer.”

Currie dominated that Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. lawyer violated federal regulation and the Structure’s Appointments Clause and ordered the felony expenses introduced in opposition to Comey and James to be dismissed.

“I conclude that each one actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s faulty appointment, together with securing and signing Mr. Comey’s indictment, represent illegal workouts of govt energy and should be put aside,” Currie wrote in her opinion within the Comey case, a line that she repeated in her ruling within the James case.

Halligan is a former insurance coverage lawyer who was a member of President Trump’s protection staff within the since-ended felony case stemming from his alleged mishandling of delicate authorities paperwork. She was tapped by Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi to function the interim U.S. lawyer in jap Virginia in September.

Quickly after Halligan briefly took the helm of the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Japanese District of Virginia, she secured indictments in opposition to Comey and James. Comey was charged with two counts stemming from testimony he gave to Congress in September 2020 and pleaded not responsible. He was indicted simply days earlier than the statute of limitations for the offenses was set to run out.

James confronted expenses of financial institution fraud and pleaded not responsible.

Since Currie ordered the instances in opposition to Comey and James to be tossed out, Halligan has tried to safe a brand new indictment in opposition to James. However grand juries in Norfolk and Alexandria, Virginia, have every individually refused to indict James once more. 

It is unclear whether or not Halligan has sought to re-indict Comey, although Currie urged in her November choice that prosecutors couldn’t search a brand new indictment in his case as a result of the statute of limitations expired on the finish of September. Moreover, a separate federal decide in Washington, D.C., blocked the Justice Division from accessing materials it seized from one among Comey’s mates greater than 5 years in the past, which Halligan had relied on when she offered the case in opposition to Comey to a grand jury in September.

Comey and James had additionally moved to have the felony expenses in opposition to them tossed out on the grounds that their respective prosecutions have been vindictive and selective. Judges overseeing their instances had not but dominated on these bids, nonetheless, when their instances have been dismissed.