Attorneys for former FBI Director James Comey and New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James have requested a choose to throw out their criminal indictments on the premise that the Trump-installed prosecutor who charged them was appointed unlawfully.
At a listening to Thursday, U.S. District Decide Cameron Currie pressed Justice Division legal professionals on the federal government’s conduct in bringing indictments towards Comey and James, which have been introduced simply weeks aside on the direct urging of President Donald Trump after he eliminated a earlier appointee overseeing the highly effective U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace within the Japanese District of Virginia and changed him with Lindsey Halligan, a White Home aide and former insurance coverage lawyer with no prior prosecutorial expertise.
Legal professionals for Comey, who has pleaded not responsible to allegedly making false statements to Congress, and James, who has pleaded not responsible to mortgage fraud-related charges, argued that the instances towards them are “fatally flawed” as a result of Halligan’s appointment violates the Structure’s Appointments Clause.
Decide Currie mentioned she would plan to rule earlier than Thanksgiving.
Whereas Currie did not point out how she’s going to finally rule, her questions prompt she was skeptical of the federal government’s actions of their rushed appointment of Halligan, who rapidly moved to carry fees towards two of Trump’s perceived political foes with out the assist of profession prosecutors in her workplace, in line with sources.
One of many arguments through the listening to centered round revelations in a authorized transient earlier this month that, greater than a month after Halligan was appointed to guide the workplace, U.S. Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi signed an extra order that sought to retroactively appoint Halligan as a “Particular Lawyer” who she had approved to hunt the indictments of Comey and James.
In her order, Bondi mentioned that “based mostly on my overview” of Halligan’s appearances earlier than the grand juries that indicted each Comey and James, she sought to additional ratify assist of her actions.
On this March 6, 2025, file photograph, Lindsey Halligan, lawyer for Donald Trump, holds ceremonial proclamations to be signed by Donald Trump within the Oval Workplace of the White Home, in Washington, D.C.
Al Drago/Getty Photographs, FILE
However Decide Currie mentioned that was not potential as a result of Bondi “could not have” reviewed all of these supplies. The choose revealed through the listening to that there’s a portion of the transcript of Halligan’s presentation to the grand jury — from 4:28 p.m. on the day of the indictment till the indictment was returned — that’s lacking.
It “seems to me,” the choose mentioned, that there was “no court docket reporter current,” and if there was, “she did not transcribe that portion.”
“How does the AG say she has reviewed” the grand jury materials “after they did not exist?” the choose requested.
Henry Whitaker, who argued on behalf of the federal government, instructed the choose that Bondi’s “consciousness of the fabric details” was all that was essential to signal a doc retroactively ratifying Halligan’s appointment.
Whitaker additional argued that the problems raised by Comey and James in looking for to invalidate Halligan’s appointment have been based mostly on “at finest, a paperwork error” and requested that if Currie have been to disqualify Halligan, that she go away the indictments in place.
The authorized problem comes on the heels of different profitable efforts to disqualify prosecutors that the Trump administration had tried to put in in no less than three different U.S. attorneys places of work in Los Angeles, Nevada and New Jersey past the 120-day restrict set by federal regulation.
Decide Currie, an appointee of former President Invoice Clinton from South Carolina, was appointed final month to supervise the problem to Halligan’s appointment.
In authorized briefs, attorneys for each Comey and James have pointed to the weird sequence of developments main as much as Halligan’s eventual appointment to guide the workplace after the ouster of Erik Siebert, who judges within the Japanese District of Virginia had unanimously voted to guide the workplace on an interim foundation after his 120-day appointment by Bondi had expired.
Siebert, as ABC Information beforehand reported, had resisted bringing the instances towards each Comey and James after profession prosecutors within the workplace decided proof towards them would seemingly fail to convince a jury of their guilt.
However simply 4 days after Halligan was put in to guide the workplace, in line with sources, she dismissed suggestions of prosecutors and personally introduced the costs towards Comey earlier than a grand jury, which voted to indict him on two of three counts sought by Halligan. Simply two weeks later, Halligan once more personally appeared earlier than a grand jury to hunt James’ indictment.
“The President and Lawyer Basic appointed the President’s private lawyer as interim U.S. Lawyer in violation of a transparent statutory command in order that the interim U.S. Lawyer may indict an outspoken critic of the President simply days earlier than the related statute of limitations was set to run out,” Comey’s attorneys mentioned in a submitting final month.
Critics say the indictments are a part of a campaign of retribution by Trump towards his perceived political foes, however Vice President JD Vance has mentioned any such prosecutions are “pushed by regulation and never by politics.”
Each James and Comey have urged Decide Currie to dismiss their indictments with prejudice, which might limit from the federal government from bringing fees towards them once more if Halligan’s appointment have been to be invalidated.
