Washington — A federal decide on Monday ordered the felony expenses in opposition to former FBI Director James Comey and New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James to be dismissed on the grounds that Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. legal professional who secured their indictments, was unlawfully appointed to the function.
The rulings from U.S. District Choose Cameron Currie are a major victory for Comey and James, who each argued their prosecutions are retaliatory and motivated by President Trump’s efforts to punish his political foes.
“I conclude that all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment, including securing and signing Mr. Comey’s indictment, constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside,” Currie wrote in her opinion within the Comey case, a line that she repeated in her ruling within the James case.
Currie ordered the indictments to be dismissed with out prejudice, which might permit prosecutors to hunt expenses once more. She urged that prosecutors couldn’t search a brand new indictment in Comey’s case for the reason that statute of limitations for the offenses expired on the finish of September.
Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James.
Getty Photos
Attorneys for each Comey and James are additionally in search of to have their indictments tossed out on quite a few different authorized grounds, together with that the prosecutions are vindictive and selective. The decide overseeing Comey’s case heard arguments on his movement final week however has but to rule.
“I am heartened by today’s victory and grateful for the prayers and support I have received from around the country,” James stated in a press release in response to the ruling. “I remain fearless in the face of these baseless charges as I continue fighting for New Yorkers every single day.”
In a video assertion, Comey stated “the message has to be sent that the president of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies.”
“I’m grateful that the court ended the case against me, which was a prosecution based on malevolence and incompetence, and a reflection of what the Department of Justice has become under Donald Trump, which is heartbreaking,” he stated.
The decide’s rulings
In her choices, the decide discovered that Halligan’s appointment violated each a federal regulation often known as Part 546, which governs U.S. legal professional vacancies, and the Structure’s Appointments Clause.
In evaluating the textual content of Part 546, Currie discovered that the facility to call an interim U.S. legal professional for the Jap District of Virginia for 120 days to fill the present emptiness rested not with the legal professional basic, however with district courtroom for the area. She wrote that if the federal government’s interpretation of the regulation have been right, then the president might evade the Senate affirmation course of “indefinitely” by “stacking” consecutive 120-day appointments.
“In sum, the text, structure, and history of section 546 point to one conclusion: the Attorney General’s authority to appoint an interim U.S. Attorney lasts for a total of 120 days from the date she first invokes section 546 after the departure of a Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney,” Currie wrote. “If the position remains vacant at the end of the 120-day period, the exclusive authority to make further interim appointments under the statute shifts to the district court, where it remains until the President’s nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Ms. Halligan was not appointed in a manner consistent with this framework.”
She concluded that Halligan has been unlawfully serving as interim U.S. legal professional since Sept. 22. Comey was indicted Sept. 25, and James was charged Oct. 9.
Halligan’s appointment
Lindsey Halligan throughout an govt order signing within the Oval Workplace of the White Home on March 31, 2025.
Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Photos
Halligan is a former insurance coverage lawyer who was a member of Mr. Trump’s protection crew in one of many felony instances introduced in opposition to him by former particular counsel Jack Smith. She took over as the highest federal prosecutor for the Jap District of Virginia in a short lived capability in late September and sought the indictments in opposition to Comey and James quickly after.
Bondi tapped Halligan as interim U.S. legal professional shortly after her predecessor, Erik Siebert, abruptly left the submit amid considerations he can be pressured out for failing to prosecute James.
Bondi appointed Halligan beneath Part 546, the federal regulation that governs U.S. legal professional vacancies and permits the legal professional basic to pick an interim U.S. legal professional, who can then serve for 120 days. The Trump administration has invoked that regulation and one other measure to put in short-term prosecutors in New Jersey, Nevada and Los Angeles, although three totally different federal judges have all discovered they have been serving unlawfully.
Within the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in jap Virginia, Siebert had first been tapped to guide the workplace in January to serve for 120 days. Forward of the expiration of his time period, the federal courtroom for the area voted to maintain him within the function, exercising authority granted to it beneath federal regulation.
After Siebert departed, although, Mr. Trump urged Bondi to put in Halligan within the submit. Bondi issued a September order purporting to call Halligan because the interim U.S. legal professional, to serve for 120 days. Days after she took the helm of the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace, Halligan secured the two-count indictment in opposition to Comey, which accuses him of mendacity to Congress throughout testimony in September 2020 and obstructing a congressional continuing. James, the New York legal professional basic, was indicted in early October on expenses of financial institution fraud. Each have pleaded not responsible to their respective expenses.
Comey’s attorneys argued that his indictment was “fatally flawed” as a result of Halligan, who alone offered the case to the grand jury and signed the indictment, was invalidly appointed to her place.
They argued that beneath the framework for a short lived U.S. legal professional appointment, the 120-day clock begins from the time of the legal professional basic’s preliminary appointment of Siebert and limits the full tenure of interim appointments to 120 days. As a result of Siebert had already served the 120 days, solely the district courtroom had authority to nominate a successor, protection attorneys stated.
However Justice Division attorneys defended the validity of Halligan’s choice and argued the 120-day restrict applies on a “per-appointment basis.” Every appointment, they stated, triggers its personal clock and requires the legal professional basic to revisit her interim alternatives each 120 days.
To shore up Halligan’s work in Comey and James’ instances, the Justice Division submitted to the courtroom an October order from Bondi that additionally purported to call her particular legal professional, utilized retroactively, and ratified her actions earlier than the grand juries and signature on the indictments.
Justice Division attorneys argued that even when Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. legal professional was invalid, any authorities lawyer can current a case to a grand jury or signal an indictment, and Bondi has the authority to make her a authorities legal professional.
However Currie rejected Bondi’s try to retroactively title Halligan as a particular legal professional and wrote that the Justice Division has not pointed to any authority that enables the legal professional basic to “reach back in time and rewrite the terms of a past appointment.” She additionally stated the legal professional basic’s try to ratify Halligan’s actions falls quick.
“The implications of a contrary conclusion are extraordinary,” Currie 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.”
Currie heard arguments on Comey’s bid to dismiss the case on the appointment grounds earlier this month alongside the same effort by James. Like in Comey’s case, solely Halligan offered the case in opposition to James to the grand jury and signed the indictment.
Requested on Monday if the ruling would have any affect on Halligan’s function, Bondi informed reporters, “it does not.”
“We have made Lindsay Halligan a special U.S. attorney so she is in court,” Bondi stated. “She can fight in court just like she was, and we believe we will be successful on appeal.”
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