Lindsey Halligan, the Donald Trump-affiliated insurance coverage lawyer the Justice Division handpicked to pursue a few of the president’s longtime political foes, together with former FBI Director James Comey and New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James, was not lawfully appointed, and subsequently, the indictments towards them are dismissed.
After reviewing grand jury supplies related to Comey’s case, U.S. District Decide Cameron Currie, appointed by former President Invoice Clinton, defined the choice: All of it got here again to a 120-day deadline for interim attorneys.
As HuffPost reported in April, the Trump administration has been benefiting from loopholes in appointment guidelines for interim or non permanent U.S. attorneys to put in Trump loyalists. By regulation, when a U.S. lawyer steps down for no matter purpose, their interim alternative can solely keep within the place for 120 days — or till a decide within the related district decides that the interim lawyer must be appointed or the courtroom makes an appointment of its personal.
“Ms. Halligan was not appointed in a manner consistent with this framework,” Currie wrote.
Due to this fact, the decide continued, “all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment” are thought of “unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.”
Comey’s crew had alleged that Halligan was unqualified to carry her function as U.S. lawyer for the Japanese District of Virginia on account of how she was appointed. (In a separate argument, Comey’s attorneys argued that the administration’s prosecution of the previous FBI director is vindictive and selective and must be dismissed on these grounds, as effectively.)
Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi ushered Halligan into the function of interim U.S. lawyer on Sept. 22 after the incumbent U.S. lawyer, Trump appointee Erik Siebert, resigned.
Siebert had stepped down moderately than undergo a reported stress marketing campaign to prosecute each Comey and New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James. He had failed to seek out enough proof to assist allegations that Comey had lied to Congress or that James had dedicated mortgage fraud, allegations Trump has pressured the Justice Division to analyze.
Only a day after Siebert resigned, Trump publicly known as on Bondi to speed up prosecutions towards his enemies, and inside 24 hours, Halligan, who has zero prosecutorial expertise, was sworn in because the interim prosecutor for probably the most prestigious and busiest judicial districts within the nation. (The Japanese District of Virginia is called the “rocket docket.”) James has additionally moved to problem Halligan’s appointment.
“The 120-day clock began running with Mr. Siebert’s appointment on Jan. 21, 2025. When that clock expired on May 21, 2025, so too did the Attorney General’s appointment authority. Consequently, I conclude that the Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid and that Ms. Halligan has been unlawfully serving in that role since Sept. 22, 2025,” Currie wrote.
The decide dismissed Comey’s case with out prejudice. Sometimes, which means the costs may be refiled by prosecutors later. Provided that the statute of limitations had run out on Comey’s case, it’s much less clear how the Justice Division could attempt to pursue him once more. The Justice Division didn’t instantly return a request for remark Monday.
Lower than every week after being appointed, and simply days earlier than a five-year statute of limitations to pursue fees ran out, Halligan rushed to get a grand jury indictment of Comey. Her prosecution alleged that Comey had lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about whether or not he had licensed somebody on the FBI to be an nameless supply in information stories, and that he had lied throughout that very same assembly when he mentioned he wasn’t conscious of any plan by Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to accuse Trump of ties to Russia to distract from the controversy over her non-public e mail server use.
The grand jury initially declined to cost Comey — an especially uncommon incidence as a result of jurors should solely discover possible trigger to cost somebody with against the law, a really low bar.
However after Halligan pressured grand jurors to remain previous regular courtroom hours, they agreed to indict Comey on two counts, not the three that Halligan had initially sought.
Halligan alone signed the indictment. This was extremely uncommon for a prison prosecution, since there are usually different attorneys who’ve labored on the case or an underlying probe who will log out.
Including to the weirdness, when a Justice of the Peace decide reviewed the indictment, she famous that there have been two variations of it printed on the courtroom docket: One through which the third cost towards Comey had been dropped and one other through which the dropped rely wasn’t proven in any respect.
Seeing two variations of an indictment was one thing that had “never happened before,” U.S. Justice of the Peace Decide Lindsey Vaala informed Halligan.
“I’m a little confused as to why I was handed two things with the same case number that are inconsistent,” Vaala mentioned from the bench in September.
Halligan informed the decide that whereas she had ready a three-count indictment towards Comey, she had solely signed the two-count indictment.
However each indictments had Halligan’s signature on them.
When Vaala pointed this out, all Halligan may muster in response was “OK, well,” in keeping with courtroom transcripts.
Then, final week, throughout a weird movement listening to, it was revealed by Justice Division attorneys that Halligan by no means truly reviewed the ultimate indictment towards Comey. After she did not get grand jurors to approve of all counts towards the previous FBI director, Halligan confirmed grand jurors an altered model of the indictment as an alternative of a brand new one as required.
In the meantime, in a press release after the dismissal, Abbe Lowell, Letitia James’ lawyer, mentioned the decide’s order acknowledged what’s been clear from the beginning of the prosecutions.
“The President went to extreme measures to substitute one of his allies to bring these baseless charges after career prosecutors refused. This case was not about justice or the law; it was about targeting Attorney General James for what she stood for and who she challenged. We will continue to challenge any further politically motivated charges through every lawful means available,” he mentioned.
James’ case additionally was dismissed with out prejudice.
To date, three different interim U.S. attorneys propped up by the Trump DOJ and particularly appointed by Bondi have been disqualified, together with Alina Habba in New Jersey, Sigal Chattah in Nevada and Bilal Essayli in California. Judges in every occasion discovered Bondi’s appointment course of was out of authorized bounds.
Bondi tried to keep away from an analogous destiny with Halligan as soon as Comey challenged Halligan’s appointment and moved to dismiss the indictment on that foundation. The lawyer normal issued an order, signed and dated Oct. 31, appointing Halligan to the “additional position of Special Attorney” to oversee Comey’s indictment, however mentioned her order retroactively utilized to Sept. 22, when Halligan was first appointed U.S. lawyer.
Though the lawyer normal has “the power to appoint subordinate officers to assist [her] in the discharge of [her] duties, the Government has identified no authority allowing the attorney general to reach back in time and rewrite the terms of a past appointment,” Currie wrote.
When reached for remark, Abigail Jackson, a White Home spokeswoman, informed HuffPost that “the facts of the indictments against Comey and James have not changed and this will not be the final word on this matter.”
It is a creating story. Please verify again for updates.
