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Source: Spencer Platt / Getty
Efforts by President Donald Trump to use the judicial system against his perceived enemies took a serious hit, as a federal judge dismissed separate cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. United States District Court Judge Cameron McGowan Currie made the ruling on Monday (Nov. 24), citing that Lindsey Halligan, the interim prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, was “unlawfully appointed.”
In her ruling, Judge Currie wrote that it was improper for the Trump administration to appoint two interim prosecutors in a row, relying ironically on a previous decision by District Court Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss an indictment against Trump due to the appointment of Jack Smith as a special counsel.
Halligan, a former White House aide, was named interim prosecutor to replace Erik Siebert. Siebert vocalized that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to indict both Comey and James. Upon taking over in late September, Halligan rushed to indict both figures, despite having no background as a prosecutor.
Judge Currie only ruled on the procedural issues, leaving it open for another prosecutor to pursue. But she noted the effect it would have on the criminal justice system. “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 makes it the fourth instance that an appointment of a loyalist by the Justice Department has been declared unlawful, according to the New York Times. This includes the installation of Alina Habba as interim head of the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey. Attorney General Pam Bondi responded, stating that the Justice Department planned to pursue “all available legal action, including an immediate appeal.”
Source: Samuel Corum / Getty
A federal judge overseeing the Justice Department’s case against former FBI Director James Comey called out the largest DOJ for a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” in the process of securing an indictment.
According to the Associated Press, Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick noted that the DOJ didn’t even provide defense lawyers with all the grand jury materials from the case.
“Those problems, wrote Judge Fitzpatrick, include ‘fundamental misstatements of the law’ by a prosecutor to the grand jury that indicted Comey in September, the use of potentially privileged communications during the investigation and unexplained irregularities in the transcript of the grand jury proceedings,” AP reports.
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“The Court recognizes that the relief sought by the defense is rarely granted,” Fitzpatrick wrote. “However, the record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding.”
Judge Fitzpatrick’s 24-page opinion is a literal smackdown to the Justice Department’s actions leading up to the Comey indictment. The opinion points to how the DOJ’s rush to indict lead to procedural missteps, which gives the appearance that the independent arm of the law is working lockstep with President Donald Trump for “reasons separate and apart from the substance of the disputed allegations against Comey,” AP notes.
The Comey case and a separate prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James shows that the Justice Department is being weaponized to attack Trump’s political opponents. Both Comey and James filed several motions to dismiss these cases before the trials even began, claiming that the vindictive nature of the cases and the prosecutor who filed them, Lindsey Halligan, wasn’t even appointed properly.
Halligan apparently had no prior prosecutorial experience before being appointed as the interim U.S. attorney. Critics argue that making her the sole prosecutor for such high-stakes cases raises serious questions about competence and legitimacy and who may be pulling the strings behind the scene.
A different judge is expected to decide whether Halligan’s appointment can be challenged.
Source: Albany Times Union/Hearst Newspapers / Getty
A post by former FBI director James Comey is being spun as a threat against President Donald Trump, with social media disagreeing.
On Thursday (May 15), former FBI director James Comey posed a photo to his Instagram account. It showed shells on the beach arranged into a formation of numbers – “86 47”. The cryptic image was accompanied by the caption, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” In restaurant culture, to “86” something means to get rid of something or someone. In pairing it with “47”, it drew immediate assumptions that the photo was a call to violence from President Donald Trump and his staff.
Comey would delete the post shortly afterward, writing that he “didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.” In a follow-up post, he continued: “It never occurred to me but l oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the administration is now investigating Comey, stating that “D.H.S. and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.”
Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, called Comey out on Fox News’ Jesse Waters Primetime saying that Comey should be “held accountable” and “put behind bars” for allegedly “issuing a call to assassinate [Trump]”. Comey was fired by Trump during his first term. Trump also attacked Comey in another interview on Fox News. “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant,” Trump said, adding: “If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant? That meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear. Now, he wasn’t very competent, but he was competent enough to know what that meant.”
But social media users called Trump and his supporters out for ramping things up too far, and recalled his own rhetoric against former President Joe Biden. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, user Drew Savicki wrote: “Nobody actually believes James Comey was threatening Trump. It’s all performative outrage.” In a segment with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, legal analyst Elie Honig dismissed Gabbard’s claims. “This is not criminal,” he said. “This is not a criminally chargeable threat against the president. It’s political speech. It’s way too broad. It’s stupid, it’s reckless. It’s not criminal. That’s just hyperbole that you’re hearing from the Cabinet members there.”
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