Federal Judge Says Inexperienced Prosecutor In James Comey Case May Have Misled Grand Jury To Get Indictment

Last month, we reported that Lindsey Halligan — the U.S. attorney who President Donald Trump tapped to lead the prosecutions of New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey, despite Halligan having no experience as a prosecutor — had proven her incompetence by sending scores of text messages to a reporter about James’ case and waiting until it was far too late to say she intended for the messages to be “off the record.”

This month, a federal judge has indicated that Harrington is not only putting her glaring lack of experience on full display in James’ case, but she’s also tanking the case against Comey.

According to the New York Times, federal magistrate Judge William E. Fitzpatrick said on Monday that the criminal case against Comey — who the Trump administration charged with giving false statements and obstruction of a congressional proceeding, charges that are related to his testimony on Russia interfering with the 2016 presidential race — could be in trouble because of a series of apparent errors committed in front of the grand jury by Halligan. In a 24-page ruling, Fitzpatrick ordered Halligan to give Comey’s lawyers all of the grand jury materials she used to obtain the indictment, questioning whether “government misconduct” misguided that jury to the point where the case against Comey needs to be dismissed altogether.

From the Times:

In his ruling, Judge Fitzpatrick said that when Ms. Halligan appeared — by herself — in front of the grand jury in September to seek an indictment accusing Mr. Comey of lying to and obstructing Congress in 2020 testimony, she made at least two “fundamental and highly prejudicial” misstatements of the law. He also pointed out that the grand jury materials he ordered her to turn over to him for his review this month appeared to be incomplete and “likely do not reflect the full proceedings.”

“The court is finding that the government’s actions in this case — whether purposeful, reckless or negligent — raise genuine issues of misconduct, are inextricably linked to the government’s grand jury presentation and deserve to be fully explored by the defense,” Judge Fitzpatrick wrote.

As part of his ruling, the judge ordered prosecutors to provide Mr. Comey’s lawyers by Monday evening with the same grand jury materials that he himself has already looked at — a measure he described as “an extraordinary remedy.” Typically, grand jury notes are kept secret before trial, even from defendants and their lawyers.

It’s just another day of amateur hour at the Trump administration. Trump is using courts of law as staging grounds for his revenge fantasies against his political opponents. What he’s doing in the cases of James Comey and others he has either targeted for DOJ investigations or criminal indictments has nothing to do with the rule of law, and that’s why his lead prosecutor can’t seem to ever get her ducks in a row.

This is what happens when a president has packed the federal government with reverse-DEI hires because MAGA loyalty is the only real qualification needed.

Sad.

SEE ALSO:

James Comey Indicted Over Alleged Russian Collusion Lies

Letitia James Prosecutor Sends Unsolicited Texts To Reporter