A federal decide on Monday dismissed the legal instances in opposition to former FBI Director James Comey and New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James, concluding that the prosecutor who introduced the costs at President Donald Trump’s urging was illegally appointed by the Justice Division.
The rulings from U.S. District Decide Cameron McGowan Currie halt a minimum of for now a pair of prosecutions that had focused two of the president’s most high-profile political opponents and quantity to a surprising rebuke of the Trump administration’s authorized maneuvering to put in an inexperienced and loyalist prosecutor prepared to file the instances.
The orders don’t concern the substance of the allegations in opposition to Comey or James however as an alternative take care of the unconventional method by which the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was named to her place as interim U.S. legal professional for the Jap District of Virginia. Protection attorneys stated the Trump administration had no authorized authority to make the appointment. In a pair of comparable rulings, Currie agreed and stated the invalid appointment required the dismissal of the instances.
“All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s faulty appointment,” together with securing and signing the indictments, “have been illegal workout routines of government energy and are hereby put aside,” she wrote.
The Justice Division didn’t instantly disclose its subsequent steps, although it could attraction the rulings and will look to refile the instances.
“The information of the indictments in opposition to Comey and James haven’t modified and this won’t be the ultimate phrase on the matter,” stated White Home spokeswoman Abigail Jackson.
Indictments had been topic to a number of challenges
The challenges to Halligan’s appointment are only one aspect of a multipronged assault on the indictments by Comey and James, whose a number of different efforts to dismiss the instances have been nonetheless pending on the time of Monday’s rulings. Each have individually asserted that the prosecutions have been vindictive and emblematic of a weaponized Justice Division. Comey’s attorneys final week, in transferring to get his case tossed out, seized on a decide’s findings of a constellation of grand jury irregularities and missteps by Halligan. James likewise has cited “outrageous authorities conduct” previous her indictment.
“I’m grateful that the courtroom ended the case in opposition to me, which was a prosecution based mostly on malevolence and incompetence and a mirrored image of what the Justice Division has change into underneath Donald Trump, which is heartbreaking,” Comey, who has pleaded not responsible to costs of creating a false assertion and obstructing Congress, stated in a video assertion.
In a separate assertion, James, a Democrat who has pleaded not responsible to mortgage fraud allegations, stated, “I’m heartened by at this time’s victory and grateful for the prayers and help I’ve acquired from across the nation.” She stated she remained “fearless within the face of those baseless costs as I proceed combating for New Yorkers each single day.”
Halligan’s appointment
At situation in Currie’s rulings is the mechanism the Trump administration employed to nominate Halligan, a former White Home aide with no prior prosecutorial expertise, to steer one of many Justice Division’s most elite and necessary workplaces.
Halligan was named as a alternative for Erik Siebert, a veteran prosecutor within the workplace a nd interim U.S. legal professional who resigned in September amid Trump administration strain to file costs in opposition to each Comey and James. He stepped apart after Trump instructed reporters he wished Siebert “out.” Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi swore in Halligan quickly after.
The next evening, Trump stated he can be nominating Halligan to the function of interim U.S. legal professional and publicly implored Bondi to take motion in opposition to his political opponents, saying in a Reality Social put up that, “We will’t delay any longer, it’s killing our repute and credibility” and “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
The previous FBI director has denied any wrongdoing and has stated he’s trying ahead to a trial, which the decide set for Jan. 5, although that date will probably be topic to vary.
Comey was indicted three days after Halligan was sworn, and James was charged two weeks after that.
Although attorneys basic do have the authority to call an interim U.S. legal professional who can serve for 120 days, attorneys for Comey and James argued that when that interval expires, the regulation offers federal judges within the district the unique say of who will get to fill the emptiness. By making a successive interim U.S. appointment and bypassing the function of courts, protection attorneys stated, the Justice Division did an end-run round well-established regulation. Currie agreed.
Currie agreed.
“The 120-day clock started working with Mr. Siebert’s appointment on January 21, 2025. When that clock expired on Might 21, 2025, so too did the Lawyer Normal’s appointment authority,” Currie wrote. “Consequently, I conclude that the Lawyer Normal’s try to put in Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Lawyer for the Jap District of Virginia was invalid and that Ms. Halligan has been unlawfully serving in that function since September 22, 2025.”
Greeted by cheering supporters, a defiant New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James was all smiles as she walked out of a Virginia courtroom after pleading not responsible to federal fraud costs. She stated the battle isn’t nearly her. NBC New York’s Sarah Wallace experiences from Virginia.
The Justice Division had defended Halligan’s appointment however revealed final month that it additionally given Halligan a separate place of “Particular Lawyer,” presumably as a technique to shield the indictment from collapse. However Currie stated such a retroactive appointment couldn’t save the instances.
“The implications of a opposite conclusion are extraordinary,” the decide wrote. “It might imply the Authorities might ship any non-public citizen off the road — legal professional or not — into the grand jury room to safe an indictment as long as the Lawyer Normal offers her approval after the actual fact. That can’t be the regulation.”
Although the defendants had requested for the instances to be dismissed with prejudice, which means the Justice Division can be barred from bringing them once more, Currie as an alternative dismissed them with out prejudice.
Comey was indicted simply days earlier than the statute of limitations in his case expired, which might complicate any effort to refile the case. Certainly one of his attorneys, Patrick Fitzgerald, stated in an announcement that Currie’s determination “additional signifies that as a result of the indictment is void, the statute of limitations has run and there will be no additional indictment.”
Judges have individually held that a number of different interim U.S. attorneys — in New Jersey, Los Angeles and Nevada — have served of their positions unlawfully however have permitted instances introduced by their workplaces to proceed. However attorneys for Comey and James had argued that Currie’s ruling wanted to go even additional as a result of Halligan was apparently the one prosecutor who introduced proof to the grand juries.
Comey has for years been considered one of Trump’s chief antagonists. Appointed FBI director in 2013 by President Barack Obama, Comey on the time of Trump’s 2016 election was overseeing an investigation into whether or not the Republican’s presidential marketing campaign had conspired with Russia to sway the end result of the race. Livid over that investigation, Trump fired Comey in Might 2017.
James has additionally been a frequent goal of Trump’s ire, particularly since profitable a staggering judgment in opposition to him and the Trump Group in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the worth of his actual property holdings on monetary statements. An appeals courtroom overturned the high-quality, which had ballooned to greater than $500 million with curiosity, however upheld a decrease courtroom’s discovering that Trump had dedicated fraud.
Judges have individually disqualified interim U.S. attorneys in New Jersey, Los Angeles and Nevada, however have permitted instances introduced underneath their watch to maneuver ahead. However attorneys for Comey and James had argued that Currie’s ruling wanted to go even additional as a result of Halligan was the only real signer of the indictments and the driving pressure behind them.
Comey has for years been considered one of Trump’s chief antagonists. Appointed to the job in 2013 by President Barack Obama, Comey, on the time of Trump’s 2016 election, was overseeing an investigation into whether or not his presidential marketing campaign had conspired with Russia to sway the end result of the race. Livid over that investigation, Trump fired Comey in Might 2017 and the 2 officers have verbally sparred within the years since.
James has additionally been a frequent goal of Trump’s ire, particularly since she received a staggering judgment in opposition to him and the Trump Group in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the worth of his actual property holdings on monetary statements. An appeals courtroom overturned the high-quality, which had ballooned to greater than $500 million with curiosity, however upheld a decrease courtroom’s discovering that Trump had dedicated fraud.
