Judge Dismisses Cases Against James Comey and Letitia James | Headline USA

(Headline USA) A federal judge on Monday dismissed the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, concluding that the prosecutor who brought the charges at President Donald Trump ’s urging was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.

The orders make Lindsey Halligan the latest Trump administration prosecutor to be disqualified because of the manner in which they were appointed.

The former FBI director said he is grateful that a judge dismissed the case against him on Monday, though he expects his saga isn’t over.

“I know that Donald Trump will probably come after me again,” Comey said in a video posted online. “I’m innocent. I am not afraid and I believe in an independent federal judiciary.”

Comey said he hopes the case sends a message that “the president of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies.”

Prosecutor Lindsey Halligan was named to the job in September after a different interim U.S. attorney, Erik Siebert, stepped down due to pressure from the Trump administration to file charges against Comey and James.

After Siebert resigned, Comey’s lawyers argued, the judges of the federal court district should have had exclusive say over who got to fill the vacancy. Instead, Trump nominated Halligan. 

Comey was indicted days later on charges of making a false statement and obstructing Congress, and James was charged soon after that in a mortgage fraud investigation.

Both defendants had asked for the cases to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning that the Justice Department would not be able to bring them again.

But the judge instead dismissed them without prejudice, though it was not immediately clear if or how the Justice Department might attempt to revive the prosecutions.