A federal judge tossed out the charges against the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, saying the U.S. attorney handpicked by President Trump was invalid — a major defeat for the president’s effort to make the criminal justice system do as he pleases.
The ruling by Judge Cameron McGowan Currie centers on the unusual nature in which Lindsey Halligan was picked by Trump to take over a key prosecutor’s office and proceed on her own in a matter of days to indict one of the president’s most reviled targets.
Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled Monday to dismiss the Comey case, writing: “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. And because Ms. Halligan had no lawful authority to present the indictment, I will grant Mr. Comey’s motion and dismiss the indictment without prejudice.”
That means that the government could attempt to refile the charges, whatever the outcome of the legal fight surrounding the appointment of Ms. Halligan, a former White House staffer. The ruling could also have implications for a separate indictment filed by Ms. Halligan against New York attorney general Letitia James.
Earlier this fall, Mr. Trump had rushed to oust the career U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, who had expressed concern that there was not sufficient evidence to indict Mr. Comey and Ms. James. The president replaced him with an insurance lawyer, Ms. Halligan, who had no previous experience as a prosecutor.
When Ms. Halligan did the president’s bidding by hurrying to charge Mr. Comey and Ms. James, it marked a generational erosion in the tradition of the White House keeping distant from the affairs of the Justice Department.
Four days after taking office, Ms. Halligan secured an indictment against Mr. Comey, charging him with lying to and obstructing Congress during testimony he gave in September 2020 about whether, as F.B.I. director, he had authorized leaks to the media about sensitive political investigations. Not long after, Ms. James was charged with bank fraud and making false statements in loan documents for a home she had purchased in Norfolk, Va.
Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former President Donald J. Trump.
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