234
Federal judge dismissed criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
(media.piefed.social)
BREAKING: Federal judge dismissed criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
In unrelated news, hopefully they both sue Trump, Halligan and the DOJ for damages and legal fees.
Both of these are "without prejudice", meaning the gov can refile charges if they get their act together on legally appointing a US attorney with the advice and consent of the Senate.
It's not completely clear, but these dismissals could moot the other pending motions to dismiss, including the vindictive prosecution claims, even though those could result in "with prejudice" dismissal.
The government can appeal these rulings. They have done so in other invalid US attorney cases.
If they refile on Comey, he will argue that the statute of limitations has run out. The government will argue that they get a 6 month extension under a statute. Judge Currie already stated today that Comey's position is correct, but I don't know if that opinion binds whatever future judge gets the case when it's refiled.
Letitia James still has more time on the statute of limitations, so she's in a worse position.
It might be hard to actually get these cases refiled. Halligan was appointed using an invalid procedure precisely because there's no way she could pass Senate confirmation. Every other prosecutor of any competence has preferred to get fired rather than charge these cases. The order today gives the judges the power to appoint an interim US attorney again, and if they do so, that one could stop any prosecution. And finally, the cases would have to pass grand jury scrutiny again. We know the Comey charges barely scraped by on 14 votes the first time.