A US federal judge on Monday dismissed criminal cases brought against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, two prominent opponents of President Donald Trump.
Judge Cameron Currie dismissed both cases, arguing that the Trump-appointed prosecutor who brought the charges, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed.
Comey, 64, was indicted in September for making false statements to Congress, in what many saw as part of a retaliatory campaign by the president against his political opponents.
James, 67, a Democrat who successfully prosecuted Trump for fraud, was charged in October with one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution.
Both accusations were brought by Halligan, an inexperienced prosecutor who once served as Trump’s personal lawyer.
Critics
The indictment against Comey came after the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, resigned after reportedly informing senior Justice Department officials that there was insufficient evidence to charge him.
Attorney General Pam Bondi replaced Siebert with Halligan, who presented the case to a grand jury and obtained an indictment.
Top federal prosecutors generally must be confirmed by the Senate, and Currie ruled that Halligan was appointed without following legal steps.
“The Attorney General’s attempt to place Prosecutor Halligan as Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid,” the judge said.
“And since Ms. Halligan had no legal authority to bring the indictment, I will grant Mr. Comey’s motion and dismiss the indictment without prejudice,” he added.
Currie ruled similarly in the James case.
The dismissal leaves open the possibility that charges could be filed again, although the statute of limitations in Comey’s case could have since expired.
Another Trump critic, his former national security adviser John Bolton, was charged with 18 counts of transmitting and retaining classified information.
Comey was appointed to head the FBI in 2013 by then-Democratic President Barack Obama and was fired by Republican Trump in 2017.
The charges against Comey came days after Trump publicly urged Bondi to take action against the former FBI director and others he considers enemies. This is at odds with the principle that the Justice Department should be free from pressure from the White House.
Since taking office in January, Trump has taken a series of punitive measures against his perceived enemies, with purges of government officials he considered disloyal, cases against law firms that brought cases against him and the withdrawal of federal funds from universities.
