Attorney General Pam Bondi has not given up on prosecuting two of Donald Trump’s political foes after their indictments were thrown out because they were filed by a prosecutor who was unlawfully serving, according to a report.
The cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York state Attorney General Letitia James were dismissed after a judge ruled that Trump’s appointment of Lindsey Halligan—a former Miss Colorado beauty pageant contestant with no experience in criminal law—as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia violated a federal law limiting the tenures of temporary federal prosecutors.
Bondi vowed to immediately appeal the decision from U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie, although no such steps have been taken yet. Sources have now told Politico that the DOJ is considering not appealing the Halligan ruling but is hoping that one or more grand juries will file new indictments against Comey and James over allegations of lying to Congress and fraud, respectively.
Such a move carries multiple risks, as there is no guarantee that a new grand jury will approve charges against Comey or James. Both cases are widely viewed as flawed and as examples of a retribution campaign waged by Trump.
There is also some confusion as to whether Halligan can still be considered to have a job following Currie’s ruling. A spokesperson for the DOJ previously told the Daily Beast that Halligan has the “full support” of the department despite the judge, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, branding her appointment unlawful. The DOJ said it is consulting with Halligan “the same way we do all U.S. Attorneys caught in this ridiculous appointment dilemma created by liberal activist judges.”
The DOJ could bypass the issue by having Halligan re-present the cases as a “special attorney” appointed by Bondi, Politico reported. Another team of prosecutors could also be assigned to carry out Trump’s revenge agenda, or even present the cases alongside Halligan.
Another potential hurdle is that the five-year statute of limitations in Comey’s case—stemming from allegations he lied to Congress in September 2020 about whether he authorized leaks to the press about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election—has now expired.
The statute of limitations expired five days before Halligan filed charges against Comey. The indictment itself was filed just days after Trump publicly complained to Bondi on Truth Social in September that “nothing is being done” about prosecuting Comey and James, in a post that was reportedly supposed to be a direct message.
“For Attorney General James, there’s no problem re-indicting here,” Gene Rossi, a former senior federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, told Politico. “For Comey, there’s no hook… For the Comey case, I think it’s gone.”
Rossi said federal prosecutors cannot cite a law that grants an extension of six months or more when a judge dismisses an indictment because the original indictment filed by Halligan was inadmissible.
“Whatever document came from that grand jury was meaningless,” Rossi said. “You can’t supersede something that doesn’t exist. If there’s no time left in the statute of limitations, they’re out of luck when it comes to Comey.
“If they go that route and try to supersede or refile the indictment against Comey, they’re going to lose.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the DOJ and lawyers for Comey and James for comment.
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