A federal judge has suggested that charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James could be dropped.
District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, a Bill Clinton appointee, seemed skeptical on Thursday about key points of the government’s reasoning for appointing Lindsey Halligan as the interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The question in the case before the judge is whether or not Attorney General Pam Bondi is legally allowed to make multiple temporary appointments for US attorney roles.
Comey is being tried for making false statements to Congress, while James is being charged with fraud.
The Trump foes are working to get their cases thrown out on the grounds that Halligan is not properly in her role since Bondi had previously appointed someone else to the US attorney’s role.
Halligan, a longtime personal attorney for Trump, was handpicked by the president despite having no prosecutorial experience.
The challenges could result in the government’s cases against the anti-Trumpers getting thrown out.
But a DOJ attorney arguing for the government dismissed questions over Halligan’s appointment to a ‘paperwork error.’
‘The attorney general is entitled to multiple 120-day appointments,’ Henry Whitaker argued on behalf of the government during the hearing.
Interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan is prosecuting cases against President Donald Trump’s rivals ex-FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. James and Comey are trying to get their cases dropped arguing that Halligan is improperly serving in the US attorney role
Former FBI Director James Comey was charged for lying to Congress
New York Attorney General Letitia James has been charged with fraud relating to a mortgage
James’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, argued that it would give the government the ‘perpetual ability’ to keep appointing interim attorneys without receiving the proper sign-off from members of Congress.
US attorneys are typically nominated for the role by the president and confirmed by a Senate vote.
Judge Currie appeared not to agree with the government’s claims that the attorney general should be able to appoint anyone at will on an interim basis.
She noted how, before Congress granted the attorney general the power to appoint interim attorneys in 1986, judges used to fill the vacancies.
‘We have about 200 years where the judges made the appointments,’ she said.
Halligan oversaw the grand jury proceedings that led to both Comey and James getting charged.
The judge said Thursday she found it odd that some portions of the grand jury transcripts were ‘missing,’ leaving gaps in her ability to review the panel that voted to bring charges against Comey.
Lowell noted how ‘even a person like Steve Bannon or Elon Musk’ could have been appointed by Bondi to oversee grand juries responsible for dishing out charges.
The judge in the case expressed concern that portions of the grand jury material relating to James Comey, which was overseen by Halligan, was ‘missing’
James was handed federal criminal charges for making false claims about her home on financial forms, allegedly helping her save close to $20,000 on a loan.
Comey, meanwhile, was charged with lying to Congress about leaking information to the media.
A ruling on the case is expected before Thanksgiving, Currie has said.
