Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
Federal Judge Vacates Indictments Against Letitia James and James Comey, Citing Illegal Appointment of Prosecutor
A federal judge on Monday dismissed the criminal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the charges had been unlawfully installed. The decision delivers a significant blow to an effort, driven by former President Donald Trump’s allies, to pursue cases against two of his most frequent political targets.
Judge Cameron McGowan Currie found that Lindsey Halligan, appointed as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, lacked lawful authority to bring the indictments. In a sharply worded order, Currie concluded that Halligan’s appointment violated federal law governing interim federal prosecutors and that all actions she took in the role, including presenting charges to grand juries, must therefore be nullified.
“The Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid,” Currie wrote. As a result, she continued, “all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment”, including the indictments against Comey and James “were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.”
The dismissals were issued without prejudice, meaning the Justice Department could theoretically refile the charges in the future if brought by a legally appointed prosecutor. Defense attorneys for both Comey and James had sought dismissal with prejudice, which would have barred the government from pursuing the same allegations again, but the judge declined to go that far.
The controversy stems from the Trump administration’s decision to remove the previous interim U.S. attorney, Erik Siebert, amid mounting pressure from Trump to take aggressive legal action against his perceived adversaries. After Siebert’s ouster, Trump personally promoted Halligan, a former White House aide with no prosecutorial background and, as critics pointed out, even a past career as a beauty pageant competitor into the role.
Defense lawyers argued that the statutory 120-day period during which an interim U.S. attorney can serve without Senate confirmation or approval by district judges had already expired when Halligan took office. Under those circumstances, they said, only the district’s judges had the authority to appoint a replacement. Prosecutors working under Halligan countered that Attorney General Pam Bondi possessed broad discretion to name any qualified individual, and that Halligan’s appointment complied with the spirit of the law.
Judge Currie rejected that reasoning and warned that accepting the government’s argument would upend legal safeguards around grand jury proceedings. “It would mean the Government could send any private citizen off the street, attorney or not into the grand jury room to secure an indictment so long as the Attorney General gives her approval after the fact,” she wrote. “That cannot be the law.”
The ruling casts fresh scrutiny on the political pressure campaign that preceded the indictments. Trump had publicly urged Bondi to pursue charges against both Comey and James, whom he has accused of orchestrating partisan investigations against him. The cases were brought before grand juries within days of Halligan’s appointment.
The decision leaves the future of the cases uncertain. While the Justice Department could seek to revive them through a legally appointed prosecutor, doing so would require revisiting the contentious circumstances surrounding Halligan’s appointment and could invite even deeper legal and political challenges.
