The Trump Justice Department has made a motion to try to get around a devastating blow to their prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey that came from a lower court — but a former federal prosecutor doesn’t see that effort going anywhere.
The issue came down this week, as federal Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick highlighted the likelihood of “government misconduct” in the case, and ordered more information from acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan’s grand jury proceedings to be turned over to Comey’s defense team — a highly unusual move that signifies the case is in serious jeopardy.
But the DOJ, in a new filing flagged by Lawfare’s Roger Parloff, is asking U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff to step in and overturn the magistrate judge’s decision.
Writing on X in reaction to the news, former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance had a simple response: “Good luck with that.”
The Comey case, one of multiple prosecutions brought by the Trump adminstration against the president’s political critics and foils, has been controversial from the start, as Trump had to oust the sitting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after he balked at bringing the case, and replace him with Lindsey Halligan, a personal attorney for Trump with no significant prosecutorial experience up to that point.
Halligan has gone on to face legal scrutiny over her eligibility for the role, as well as a number of basic mistakes in her litigation, including filing the wrong charging documents.
Comey, who has been an object of Trump’s wrath ever since the president fired him in his first term for refusing to shut down investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is charged with false statements and obstruction of justice, based on testimony he gave at a Senate hearing several years ago that appears to be broadly true and isn’t even quoted correctly in the indictment.
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