Justice Department Appeals Dismissal of Comey and Letitia James Cases

The Justice Department said Friday that it will appeal rulings that threw out the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to CBS News and NBC News. The appeal, expected since the rulings last month, goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie ruled last month that Lindsey Halligan, who obtained both indictments, was unlawfully appointed as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, violating federal law and the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. Currie wrote that “all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment, including securing and signing Mr. Comey’s indictment, constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside.” NBC reported she described Halligan as “a former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience” who acted alone before the grand juries.

Comey was charged with making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation; James was charged with bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution, over allegations that she saved roughly $50 a month on a mortgage after describing the property as a primary residence, NBC said. Both pleaded not guilty. NBC reported that career prosecutors, including her predecessor Erik Siebert, concluded the cases were not strong enough before Halligan was named, and that she presented the Comey case alone just days before the five-year statute of limitations expired.

Currie found that a statute lets the attorney general appoint interim U.S. attorneys for no more than 120 days unless the Senate confirms them, NBC reported. Attorneys for Comey argued that it was up to the district’s judges, not Attorney General Pam Bondi, to name Siebert’s replacement. Halligan is listed on the notices of appeal as “United States attorney and special attorney,” CBS said. NBC reported that Bondi has called her “an excellent U.S. attorney.”

The government’s path is difficult. CBS reported that grand juries in Norfolk and Alexandria each refused to indict James again after the dismissal. It is unclear whether Halligan has tried to re-indict Comey, but Currie suggested the statute of limitations expired at the end of September, and a separate judge in Washington blocked the department from accessing material seized from a friend of Comey’s. Comey and James had also argued their prosecutions were vindictive, but the judges had not ruled on those motions, CBS noted.

President Donald Trump defended Halligan after the ruling, calling her “a very talented lawyer” and saying Comey and James “got out on a technicality,” NBC reported.

The dispute is part of a wider pattern. NBC said prosecutors in New Jersey, Nevada and California have been disqualified as well, and the department is appealing those rulings too.