Judge dismisses case against ex-FBI chief James Comey, rebuking Trump prosecutor
Washington: A US judge has thrown out criminal cases against former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James in an extraordinary move, finding that President Donald Trump’s hand-picked prosecutor was illegally appointed to the job.
Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s former personal attorney, has been appointed interim U.S. attorney in the key district of Virginia amid resistance from the office to pursue lawsuits against the president’s political enemies.
James Comey was one of three prominent critics of the Republican president who has been indicted by Trump’s Justice Department in recent months.Credit: access point
But on Tuesday (AEDT), South Carolina district court judge Cameron McGown Currie found Halligan was not validly appointed because the law only allows the attorney general to appoint an interim attorney once, for a period of 120 days.
Thereafter, the only agency with the authority to make further temporary appointments is the district court. Halligan would need to be confirmed by the Senate to be appointed by the president, but that has not happened yet.
Currie ruled that Halligan lacked the “legal authority” to bring charges against Comey and James. “Any actions resulting from Ms. Halligan’s flawed appointment are an unlawful exercise of executive authority and are hereby set aside,” he wrote.
Currie dismissed the cases without prejudice, giving the Justice Department the opportunity to resubmit the charges to a different prosecutor.
Trump appointed his former personal attorney, Lindsey Halligan, to take over the Comey case.Credit: access point
However, it turned out that the five-year statute of limitations in the Comey case may have now expired. A lawsuit was filed on charges of making false statements to the US Congress during the hearing on September 30, 2020.
Halligan, who had no prosecutorial experience and was handling his first case, was also sentenced to impeachment by a magistrate judge on the grounds that he made “fundamental misrepresentations regarding the law” when receiving the indictment from the grand jury in the Comey case.
