ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Lawyers for former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a judge Thursday to dismiss the cases against them, saying the prosecutor who secured the indictments was illegally installed in the role.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie said she expects to decide by Thanksgiving on challenges to Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. That decision could help determine the fate of the politically charged cases, which were both shepherded by the hastily installed Halligan and together have amplified concerns that the Justice Department is being used as a weapon to target President Donald Trump’s perceived adversaries.
Halligan was installed in the job at Trump’s urging by Attorney General Pam Bondi in September, just days before Comey was indicted, in what defense lawyers say was an end-run around the constitutional and statutory rules governing the appointment of U.S. attorneys. They say the maneuver was designed to ensure indictments against the president’s political opponents after the prosecutor who had been overseeing the two investigations, but had not brought charges, was effectively forced out.
“Ms. Halligan was the sole prosecutor in the grand jury room, and when the sole prosecutor lacks the authority,” said Ephraim McDowell, one of Comey’s defense lawyers, “that’s not going to be a harmless error.”
U.S. attorneys, top federal prosecutors who oversee regional Justice Department outposts across the country, are typically nominated by the president and then confirmed by the Senate. Attorneys general do have the authority to name an interim U.S. attorney who can serve for 120 days, but lawyers for Comey and James argued that once that period expires, the law gives federal judges the exclusive say of who gets to fill the vacancy.