A federal judge on Monday dismissed the Justice Department’s criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, finding that the acting U.S. attorney who obtained the indictments was unlawfully appointed.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that “all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment,” including the indictments of Comey and James, “were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.” Currie, who was nominated to the bench by former President Bill Clinton, dismissed the cases without prejudice, meaning the Justice Department could potentially bring them again.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration disagrees with the ruling. She defended Lindsey Halligan as “extremely qualified” and said the Justice Department would appeal, adding that “everybody knows James Comey lied to Congress” and calling the judge’s action “unprecedented.”
Halligan was tapped by President Trump to serve as acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after he removed the prior top prosecutor, who had expressed doubts about pursuing charges against Comey and James. A former insurance attorney who had served as Trump’s personal lawyer and later as a White House aide, Halligan had no prior prosecutorial experience. She was sworn in as acting U.S. attorney on Sept. 22; three days later she secured a two-count indictment against Comey, just days before the statute of limitations expired. Comey has pleaded not guilty.
“I’m grateful that the court ended the case against me, which was a prosecution based on malevolence and incompetence,” Comey said in a social media video. His lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said the decision recognizes that the case was brought by “someone who had no authority whatsoever to be the United States Attorney,” and added that because the indictment is void the statute of limitations has run and there can be no further indictment.
Two weeks after Comey’s indictment, Halligan secured charges against James, accusing the state attorney general of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. James has pleaded not guilty and said she remains “fearless in the face of these baseless charges.” Her attorney, Abbe Lowell, criticized the move as political, saying the president “went to extreme measures to substitute one of his allies to bring these baseless charges after career prosecutors refused,” and called the prosecution about targeting James rather than justice.
Court filings indicate Halligan was the only prosecutor to present before the grand juries in both matters. The actions followed a social media post from Trump urging prosecution of Comey, James and Sen. Adam Schiff; Schiff is not charged but is under federal investigation for alleged mortgage fraud.
—NPR’s Carrie Johnson contributed to this report.