Judge Dismisses Comey, James Indictment11/25 06:01

   A federal judge on Monday dismissed the criminal cases against former FBI 
Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, concluding 
that the prosecutor who brought the charges at President Donald Trump's urging 
was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge on Monday dismissed the criminal cases 
against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia 
James, concluding that the prosecutor who brought the charges at President 
Donald Trump's urging was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.

   The rulings from U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie halt at least 
for now a pair of prosecutions that had targeted two of the president's most 
high-profile political opponents and amount to a sharp rebuke of the Trump 
administration's legal maneuvering to install an inexperienced and loyalist 
prosecutor willing to file the cases.

   The orders do not concern the substance of the allegations against Comey or 
James but instead deal with the unconventional manner in which the prosecutor, 
Lindsey Halligan, was named to her position as interim U.S. attorney for the 
Eastern District of Virginia. Defense lawyers said the Trump administration had 
no legal authority to make the appointment. In a pair of similar rulings, 
Currie agreed and said the invalid appointment required the dismissal of the 
cases.

   "All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan's defective appointment," including 
securing and signing the indictments, "were unlawful exercises of executive 
power and are hereby set aside," she wrote.

   A White House spokeswoman said the rulings will "not be the final word on 
the matter," and Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed at an unrelated news 
conference that the Justice Department would pursue an "immediate appeal." 
Prosecutors may also try to refile the changes, a possibility left open by the 
judge's orders.

   Indictments had been subject to multiple challenges

   The challenges to Halligan's appointment are just one facet of a multiprong 
assault on the indictments by Comey and James, whose multiple other efforts to 
dismiss the cases remain unresolved.

   Both have separately asserted that the prosecutions were vindictive and 
emblematic of a weaponized Justice Department. Comey's lawyers last week seized 
on a judge's findings of a constellation of grand jury irregularities and 
missteps by Halligan and James likewise has cited "outrageous government 
conduct" preceding her indictment.

   "I am grateful that the court ended the case against me, which was a 
prosecution based on malevolence and incompetence and a reflection of what the 
Justice Department has become under Donald Trump, which is heartbreaking," 
Comey, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of making a false statement and 
obstructing Congress, said in a video statement.

   In a separate statement, James, a Democrat who has pleaded not guilty to 
mortgage fraud allegations, said, "I am heartened by today's victory and 
grateful for the prayers and support I have received from around the country." 
She said she remained "fearless in the face of these baseless charges as I 
continue fighting for New Yorkers every single day."

   Halligan's appointment

   At issue in Currie's rulings is the mechanism the Trump administration 
employed to appoint Halligan, a former White House aide with no prior 
prosecutorial experience, to lead one of the Justice Department's most elite 
and important offices.

   Halligan was named as a replacement for Erik Siebert, a veteran prosecutor 
in the office and interim U.S. attorney who resigned in September amid Trump 
administration pressure to file charges against both Comey and James. He 
stepped aside after Trump told reporters he wanted Siebert "out."

   The following night, Trump said he would be nominating Halligan to the role 
of interim U.S. attorney and publicly implored Bondi to take action against his 
political opponents, saying in a Truth Social post that, "We can't delay any 
longer, it's killing our reputation and credibility" and "JUSTICE MUST BE 
SERVED, NOW!!!"

   Comey was indicted three days after Halligan was sworn in by Bondi, and 
James was charged two weeks after that.

   Attorneys general do have the authority to name an interim U.S. attorney who 
can serve for 120 days. But lawyers for Comey and James argued that once that 
period expires, as it did in Siebert's case, the law gives federal judges in 
the district the exclusive authority to appoint a prosecutor to serve until the 
vacancy is filled. By making successive interim U.S. appointments on its own, 
defense lawyers said, the Justice Department did an end-run around 
well-established law.

   "The 120-day clock began running with Mr. Siebert's appointment on January 
21, 2025. When that clock expired on May 21, 2025, so too did the Attorney 
General's appointment authority," Currie wrote. "Consequently, I conclude that 
the Attorney General's attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney 
for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid and that Ms. Halligan has been 
unlawfully serving in that role since September 22, 2025."

   The Justice Department had defended Halligan's appointment but revealed last 
month that it also given Halligan a separate position of "Special Attorney," 
presumably as a way to protect the indictments from the possibility of 
collapse. But Currie said such a retroactive designation could not save the 
cases.

   "The implications of a contrary conclusion are extraordinary," the judge 
wrote. "It would mean the Government could send any private citizen off the 
street -- attorney or not -- into the grand jury room to secure an indictment 
so long as the Attorney General gives her approval after the fact. That cannot 
be the law."

   Though the defendants had asked for the cases to be dismissed with 
prejudice, meaning the Justice Department would be barred from bringing them 
again, Currie instead dismissed them without prejudice -- leaving open the 
possibility that prosecutors could try to file the charges again.

   Comey was indicted just days before the five-year statute of limitations in 
his case expired, which could complicate any effort to refile the case. One of 
his lawyers, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in a statement that Currie's decision 
"further indicates that because the indictment is void, the statute of 
limitations has run and there can be no further indictment."

   Judges have separately held that several other interim U.S. attorneys -- in 
New Jersey, Los Angeles and Nevada -- have served in their positions unlawfully 
but have also permitted cases brought by their offices to proceed. Lawyers for 
Comey and James had argued that Currie's rulings needed to go even further 
because Halligan was apparently the only prosecutor who presented evidence to 
the grand juries.

   Longtime foes of the president

   Comey has for years been one of Trump's chief antagonists. Appointed FBI 
director in 2013 by President Barack Obama, Comey at the time of Trump's 2016 
election was overseeing an investigation into whether the Republican's 
presidential campaign had conspired with Russia to sway the outcome of the 
race. Furious over that investigation, Trump fired Comey in May 2017.

   James has also been a frequent target of Trump's ire, especially since 
winning a staggering judgment against him and the Trump Organization in a 
lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate 
holdings on financial statements. An appeals court overturned the fine, which 
had ballooned to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a lower 
court's finding that Trump had committed fraud.