Politically motivated indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were dismissed by a federal judge on Monday, with the judge citing the basic incompetence of the Trump administration in the way it handled the cases.
“All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside,” Judge Cameron McGowan Currie wrote, the “Ms. Halligan” in the case being Lindsey Halligan, the former insurance lawyer installed by Donald Trump as the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in September, with the express purpose of securing indictments of Comey and James.
Comey’s lawyers had sought a dismissal based on the “defective appointment” theory. Halligan, a former failed beauty-pageant contestant-turned-dimestore lawyer, was installed in her interim post after the previous interim, Erik Siebert, refused to follow through with the cases.
Siebert was forced out days before the statute of limitations on the matter that the Trumpers wanted to bring regarding congressional testimony in September 2020 were to expire.
Now that we’re well into November, that deadline has since passed, so Comey is home-free.
Comey, in a video posted on the interwebs on Monday, said the court ruling in his case sent a message “that the President of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies.
“I don’t care what your politics are, you have to see that as fundamentally un-American and a threat to the rule of law that keeps all of us free,” Comey said.
The charges against James, who was targeted because she successfully brought a civil fraud case against Trump that led to a $400 million-plus judgment, can be brought again in the future.
“I am heartened by today’s victory and grateful for the prayers and support I have received from around the country. I remain fearless in the face of these baseless charges as I continue fighting for New Yorkers every single day,” James said in a statement.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who, with Sen. Mark Warner, also D-Va., had nominated Siebert to the U.S. Attorney post earlier this year, issued his own victory-lap statement on the decision to drop the “baseless charges” against Comey and James.
“President Trump forced a qualified U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia to resign so he could appoint an unqualified replacement with no prosecutorial experience who isn’t even licensed to practice law in Virginia. Why? In order to compel the initiation of criminal cases against his perceived political enemies. Today his blatant persecution effort blew up in his face,” Kaine said.
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Chris Graham
