The Sundarban
President Donald Trump for my share known as for the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey, a political adversary since his first term in administrative center. But after a flurry of court events this week, the prosecution appears to be like to be hanging by a thread.
The Trump administration has tested the boundaries of the U.S. justice system at some stage in his first one year lend a hand in administrative center – namely by trying to install loyalists in influential positions at the Justice Division, which has historically been anticipated to feature above political influence.
The Comey case is share of what critics list as the co-opting of the DOJ for a marketing campaign of loyal retribution against his political opponents, including Mr. Comey and Unique York Licensed legit Fashioned Letitia James. Supporters lend a hand the president’s actions as rectifying the “lawfare” they notify the Biden administration and other Democrats pursued against Mr. Trump and his allies. The potential cave in of the case against Mr. Comey also intertwines with some long-running themes of the Justice Division in the first one year of the unusual Trump term: the administration’s need to install top federal prosecutors without U.S. Senate approval.
Why We Wrote This
A central theme of President Donald Trump’s return to administrative center has been his name to prosecute his perceived political enemies. In one of the most excessive-profile efforts, against a former FBI director, a series of govt missteps capacity the case could well well cave in.
The govt charged Mr. Comey in September with one count of inaccurate statements and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding – both relating to testimony he gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020.
Mr. Comey has pleaded no longer responsible to both charges. But it appears to be like the case could well well never stare the inside of a court anyway.
“Everything about the proceedings of the final week is unfamiliar,” says Shane Stansbury, a former federal prosecutor in Unique York.
What are the concerns with the huge jury task?
There are several, nevertheless the most pressing one is that the federal prosecutor in payment of the case appears to be like to catch made a grisly procedural error in entrance of the huge jury.
Before any criminal charges could well additionally be introduced against an individual, a prosecutor have to stable an indictment from a huge jury. The confidential proceeding is intended to create certain that the govt doesn’t improperly prosecute any individual.
Individuals of the media region up cameras exterior the Albert V. Bryan U.S. Courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, Nov. 13, 2025. The courthouse is home to the U.S. Licensed legit’s Administrative center for the Eastern District of Virginia, which has jurisdiction over the case against former FBI Director James Comey.
That task is one-sided. The huge jury entirely sees evidence and hears from witnesses known as by the prosecutor. In the Comey case, nevertheless, evidently the lead Justice Division prosecutor will catch misled the huge jury.
That prosecutor is Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. Licensed legit for the Eastern District of Virginia. A former inner most criminal legit for Mr. Trump with no prosecutorial expertise, the president handpicked her for the plot after pressuring the former top prosecutor for that district, Erik Siebert, to resign – reportedly after Mr. Siebert wondered the strength of the case against Mr. Comey. The U.S. Licensed legit’s Administrative center for the Eastern District of Virginia declined to comment for this account.
Days later, Ms. Halligan secured the indictment against Mr. Comey. But a whirlwind region of loyal trends this week could well well sink the case.
On Monday, a magistrate make a decision in the district ordered the govt to unlock the huge jury materials to Mr. Comey’s attorneys attributable to “a disturbing sample of profound investigative missteps” from the Justice Division that “potentially undermine[s] the integrity of the huge jury proceeding.”
“The Court recognizes this is an extraordinary medication,” added Resolve William E. Fitzpatrick in his opinion. But “the prospect that govt misconduct could well additionally catch tainted the huge jury proceedings, [means the] disclosure of enormous jury materials under these odd circumstances is distinguished to fully provide protection to the rights of the accused.”
Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. Licensed legit for the Eastern District of Virginia and a former aide to President Donald Trump, speaks with reporters exterior the White Dwelling, Aug. 20, 2025.
U.S. District Court Resolve Michael Nachmanoff stayed that expose at the govt’s query later that day, and scheduled a hearing, held on Wednesday. That hearing resulted in the admission from Ms. Halligan that she had never confirmed the final indictment to the corpulent huge jury.
According to information reviews, the jurors had rejected one count in a three-count indictment. Ms. Halligan then reportedly redrafted the indictment to go over the rejected payment and confirmed it to at least one member of the huge jury and the panel’s foreperson, the latter of whom signed it. That is no longer, in and of itself, unlawful. Federal legislation lets in an indictment to be returned by the huge jury foreperson by myself, according to Andrew McCarthy, a former assistant U.S. attorney writing in the National Overview, namely when the indictment became returned at a slack hour, as became the case with the Comey prosecution.
“I agree with there are most main issues with the Comey charges that could well additionally restful reason the indictment to be dismissed pretrial. I don’t agree with that the unfamiliar genesis of the two-count indictment file is one of them,” added Mr. McCarthy.
Jeffrey Cohen, a former federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, has the same opinion that the tiny print will determine “if this became a innocent error or no longer.” But the misstep has serious implications, he says.
“The crucial principle is that it’s the huge jury making the charging decisions, no longer the prosecutor,” he says.
“We don’t like the understanding, nor could well additionally restful we like the understanding, that prosecutors can correct go around charging of us. There needs to be a take a look at on that energy,
