A federal judge has slammed the Trump Justice Department for a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” in the case against former FBI Director James Comey.
U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick also warned that the botched probe could even result in the dismissal of one or more charges.
And in a humiliating blow for Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump’s handpicked prosecutor Lindsey Halligan, the DOJ has been ordered to overturn the entire set of grand jury materials to Comey as he seeks to get the charges against him dismissed.
The order—a rare outcome in federal criminal practice—represents the sharpest legal setback yet for Halligan, the former beauty pageant contestant who Trump installed to prosecute Comey after pushing out her predecessor in Virginia’s Eastern District.
“The Court recognizes that the relief sought by the defense is rarely granted,” Judge Fitzpatrick wrote in his blistering rebuke on Wednesday.
“However, the record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding,” he added.
“Therefore, in this case, “the Court has before it a rare example of a criminal defendant who can actually make a ‘particularized and factually based’ showing that grounds exist to support the proposition that irregularities may have occurred in the grand jury proceedings and may justify the dismissal of one or more counts of the indictment”… Accordingly, the defense request for all grand jury materials is granted.”
According to Fitzpatrick, Halligan, who had never prosecuted a case prior to Comey’s, appeared to make two “fundamental misstatements of law” to the grand jury that could jeopardize the indictment altogether.
Firstly, she appeared to suggest Comey might have to testify at trial to explain his innocence, which was an improper characterization of the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Fitzpatrick also said Halligan appeared to improperly suggest grand jurors could assume the government had more evidence against Comey than what it presented to them.
Halligan has also come under fire for what appeared to be gap in the transcript from the day the indictment was returned.
The official record abruptly ends well before the grand jury voted, raising the possibility that statements or instructions from Halligan may have gone unrecorded or undisclosed.
In a statement to the Daily Beast last week, the DOJ insisted there was no “missing time.”
“That time period refers to when the jurors were deliberating behind closed doors, which would not be included in a transcription,” the statement said.
But after reviewing the documents and timelines, the court found the explanation insufficient.
Fitzgerald, who was appointed in 2022, has now joined a growing number of jurists who have criticized the case against Comey.
The former FBI director is a longtime adversary of the president, who Trump blames for helping to trigger special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Comey pleaded not guilty last month to the charges, which relate to claims that he lied to Congress while giving testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020.
During that testimony, Comey was questioned about a 2017 leak of sensitive information to the media.
Prosecutors allege Comey falsely stated that he never authorized an anonymous source within the FBI to speak to the media about an investigation.
Comey, however, insists he is innocent and is now seeking to quash the case for selective and vindictive prosecution, based on Donald Trump’s public demand that Comey be charged.
He also argues that Halligan was serving illegally when she brought criminal cases against him.
“My family and I have known for years that there are costs for standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way,” he said in a video posted to social media after he was charged.
“We will not live on our knees and you shouldn’t either.”
The Department of Justice declined to comment on the latest ruling.
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