(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James have asked a judge to throw out their criminal indictments on the basis that the Trump-installed prosecutor who charged them was appointed unlawfully.

At a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie pressed Justice Department lawyers on the government’s conduct in bringing indictments against Comey and James, which were brought just weeks apart at the direct urging of President Donald Trump after he removed a previous appointee overseeing the powerful U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia and replaced him with Lindsey Halligan , a White House aide and former insurance lawyer with no prior prosecutorial experience.

Lawyers for Comey, who has pleade

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