Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig weighs in:
Let’s begin with the indictment itself, and no matter little might be discerned from it. We’ve bought two counts — the grand jury reportedly rejected a 3rd — each primarily based on Comey’s testimony to the Senate in September 2020. Depend one alleges that Comey testified falsely and rely two prices that, by giving that false testimony, he obstructed a congressional continuing. Based on the indictment, Comey testified that he had not approved anybody else on the FBI to leak data to the media, when actually he had executed so.
And that … is it. The entire charging doc runs lower than two full pages, and the core allegations take up only a couple dozen phrases. The very objective of an indictment is to inform a defendant of the costs towards him, with cheap specificity. A lot for that quaint notion.
Whereas he doesn’t suppose this payback prosecution has a lot likelihood of success, it nonetheless “marks a darkish flip”:
Look ahead to Comey’s group to maneuver shortly to dismiss the indictment primarily based on a declare of selective prosecution. They’ll argue, in essence, that he was singled out for prosecution for political or different improper functions. Defendants typically elevate this declare however not often win. The issue is that it’s sometimes tough or unattainable to show that the federal government had some impermissible motive; conversations about concentrating on are inclined to occur in hushed tones behind closed doorways, if in any respect.
However that’s not how Donald Trump operates. For this president, every thing is broadcast to the world, dwell and unfiltered, over social media. Accordingly, Trump already has given Comey exhibit A in his forthcoming movement to dismiss: a September 20 Fact Social publish by which the president brazenly exhorted his legal professional common (“Pam;,” the missive opens) to indict Comey and different favourite targets for political retribution. “What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia???” the president wrote. “They’re all responsible as hell, however nothing goes to be executed.” After some stream-of-consciousness rambling, Trump ended his diatribe with an instruction to his Justice Division: “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!! President DJT.” It’s tough to think about a extra simple case of selective prosecution. Don’t be shocked if a choose throws this mess out earlier than it ever reaches a jury.
This prosecution marks a darkish flip. Throughout his first time period, Trump was stuffed with public bluster, brazenly pining for felony prosecutions of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry, and, sure, Jim Comey. However it was all chatter, again then; DoJ and different leaders principally ignored the president’s rants and waited for the tempest to go.
However now the fanciful discuss has turn into motion, and Comey — as soon as a revered federal prosecutor who took down worldwide terrorists and New York gangsters — will discover himself sitting at a defendant’s desk and going through the prospect of his personal imprisonment. Unlikely as it appears that evidently Comey will get convicted and sentenced to jail, no person can afford to be nonchalant a couple of federal indictment filed by prosecutors representing america of America.
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