A federal judge just threw out the high-profile criminal cases against James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James — not because of the evidence, but because the prosecutor who brought the charges wasn’t legally allowed to do the job.
Senior Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-aligned lawyer who led both prosecutions, was installed through an improper appointment process. And that one detail unraveled everything that followed, including the indictments themselves.
Currie spelled it out clearly: only the district court had the authority to appoint an acting U.S. attorney in Eastern Virginia when the previous one left. But instead, former Attorney General Pam Bondi placed Halligan — a former personal lawyer to Donald Trump with zero prosecutorial experience — into the top job. Within days, Halligan took cases against Comey and James to federal grand juries and secured indictments.
Currie called those actions “unlawful exercises of executive power” and tossed the cases.
A politically charged setup
The context around Halligan’s appointment adds even more heat. Erik Siebert, the previous interim U.S. attorney, reportedly pushed back on charging Comey or Letitia James. Trump later claimed he fired Siebert, and soon after publicly urged Bondi to install Halligan while demanding charges against his political rivals.
What this really means is that Halligan wasn’t just an improper appointee — she was placed directly into a role that career prosecutors had resisted using for politically sensitive cases.
Can prosecutors try again?
Technically, yes. Currie dismissed the indictments without prejudice, which means the Justice Department can try to bring new charges. But there’s a catch that may end things for good — especially for Comey.
His lawyers argue that the statute of limitations expired just days after the initial indictment. Currie noted the timing problem as well, hinting that it may now be legally impossible to recharge him.
For Letitia James, the door remains open, but the Justice Department now has six months to figure out whether it's going to pursue the matter under a lawfully appointed prosecutor.
Trump’s long-running feud
Both targets have been on Trump’s radar for years.
- Comey, of course, was fired by Trump in 2017 during the Russia investigation.
- Letitia James led the civil fraud case that hit Trump and his company with a massive judgment — later reduced on appeal but still upheld as fraud.
The indictments came shortly after Trump publicly declared that Comey, James, and others were “guilty as hell,” even though he didn’t specify of what.
The reactions
James said she felt “heartened” by the dismissal and vowed to keep doing her job “every single day.” Her attorney went further, arguing that Trump substituted career prosecutors with allies because they wouldn’t bring cases that had no merit.
The Justice Department hasn’t commented yet, though an appeal is almost certain.
Big picture
The ruling doesn’t just halt two politically explosive prosecutions. It raises deeper questions about how aggressively Trump has tried to reshape the Justice Department to settle political scores — and how much damage was done by the rush to install loyalists into powerful federal positions.
For now, both cases are off the table. Whether they ever come back is anyone’s guess.
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