James Comey and Letitia James just won a sweeping courtroom victory, one that doubles as a sharp, public rebuke of the Trump aligned prosecutor who brought their cases.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie dismissed both criminal indictments. He found that Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney who presented the cases to the grand jury, was never properly appointed. Without a valid prosecutor, the indictments could not legally hold up.
“I agree with Mr. Comey that the Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid,” Currie wrote. “And because Ms. Halligan had no lawful authority to present the indictment, I will grant Mr. Comey’s motion and dismiss the indictment.” She issued a similar ruling in the case against Letitia James.
Halligan, a former personal lawyer to Donald Trump, was granted the powerful post after her predecessor was pushed out for refusing to follow through on the prosecutions due to lack of evidence. According to court filings, she was the only prosecutor to sign and present both indictments, and since her appointment was invalid, every action she took in that role, including the grand jury presentations, was void.
Comey had been charged with making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation. James faced bank fraud and false statement charges related to a Virginia mortgage. Both pleaded not guilty and accused the Justice Department of pursuing politically motivated prosecutions. Now, both cases have been wiped out in full.
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The decision could cause far reaching fallout. Because Halligan handled multiple matters during her tenure, defense attorneys in unrelated cases are already expected to challenge her authority. A similar ruling involving Alina Habba, another Trump aligned interim U.S. attorney installed in New Jersey, has already left several prosecutions stuck in legal limbo.
Judge Currie revealed her skepticism during a rare joint hearing with lawyers for Comey and James on November 13. A prosecutor from the Justice Department said questions about Halligan’s appointment were just “a paperwork error.” Comey’s attorney disagreed, saying it was a “fatal flaw” that harmed the whole prosecution.
Currie ultimately sided with the defense as she pointed out that federal law restricts how interim U.S. attorneys can be appointed and how long they can serve. In this case, Halligan’s predecessor had already used up the allowed interim term, and the attorney general did not have the legal power to replace him with Halligan.
Because Halligan was the only prosecutor involved in the cases, Currie ruled that dismissal was the only remedy.
The dismissals were issued “without prejudice,” meaning the Justice Department could theoretically refile charges using a properly appointed prosecutor. However, the path forward with another prosecution will have another set of challenges as the cases were already clouded with concerns about political motivation from Trump, and statute of limitations complications.
For now, the once headline grabbing prosecutions of James Comey and Letitia James have collapsed entirely, not on the facts of the cases, but because the judge concluded the government’s chosen prosecutor never had the authority to bring them at all.
