Judge dismisses DOJ charges against James Comey and Letitia James

A judge ordered that charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both targets of President Donald Trump, be dismissed because the prosecutor who secured the charges was unlawfully appointed.

Senior U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie wrote in opinions on Monday that only a district court had the power to appoint a new head to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, after the previous head of that office departed.

Instead, Attorney General Pam Bondi attempted to appoint Lindsey Halligan, a former personal lawyer to Trump, to head the office. Halligan secured charges against Comey and James from federal grand juries.

"I conclude that all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment, including securing and signing Mr. Comey’s indictment, constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside," Currie wrote in Comey's case.

In a separate opinion in James' case, Currie used almost identical language to dismiss the charges against the New York attorney general.

Bondi says DOJ will take 'all available legal action'

Bondi on Monday evening said the Department of Justice will file an "immediate appeal" to Currie's decision.

"We'll be taking all available legal action, including an immediate appeal, to hold Letitia James and James Comey accountable for their unlawful conduct," Bondi said during a press conference in Memphis.

"I'm going to keep going on this," she added. "I'm not worried about someone who has been charged with a very serious crime. His alleged actions were a betrayal of public trust."

– Lucas Finton, The Commercial Appeal

White House accuses judge of trying to 'shield' Comey and James

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Justice Department will appeal the decision as she accused the judge of a using a technicality to “shield” Comey and James.

"Everybody knows that James Comey lied to Congress. It’s as clear as day,” Leavitt said in an interview on Fox News. “And this judge took an unprecedented action to throw these cases out to shield James Comey and Letitia James from accountability based on a technical ruling.”

Leavitt added: “We believe the attorney in this case, Lindsey Halligan, is not only extremely qualified for this position, but she was, in fact, legally appointed.”

– Joey Garrison

One potential ‘legally permissible’ option to reinstate Halligan?

Ed Whelan, the principal deputy assistant attorney general for legal counsel under former President George W. Bush, said one option that he thought would be legally “permissible” would be for Bondi to appoint Halligan as "first assistant" in the U.S. Attorney's office, and that Halligan would then automatically become acting U.S. Attorney pursuant to the federal Vacancies Reform Act.

That would allow Halligan to potentially re-indict Comey, Whelan said. However, Currie suggested the Justice Department can't seek to bring the same charges against Comey again in her ruling on Monday.

Trump isn't 'going after' his critics, White House press secretary says

Asked for Trump’s reaction to the judge’s decisions, Leavitt said he has seen partisan judges make unprecedented decisions before.

“We’re not going to give up,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt told reporters that Trump isn’t “going after” his critics but pursuing accountability through the justice system.

“I wouldn’t say he’s going after them,” Leavitt said. “I think the president is more determined than ever to see accountability in this country, and to correct the wrongs of the weaponization of our justice system that we saw under the previous administration.”

DOJ will appeal 'very soon,' White House says

Leavitt said that Halligan was legally appointed but that the judge was “clearly trying to shield” James and Comey and criminal charges.

“The Department of Justice will be appealing very soon,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House.

Footnote suggests Comey can't face same charges again

In a footnote, Currie suggested that the Justice Department can't seek to bring the same charges against Comey again.

That's because of a five-year deadline for bringing charges for allegedly lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. The dismissed indictment alleged Comey did those things on or about Sept. 30 of 2020, meaning the five-year deadline for bringing charges expired around the end of September of this year.

While the Justice Department could argue that the initial indictment put a pause on the legal deadline for bringing charges, Currie suggested that argument doesn't hold up.

An invalid indictment "'cannot serve to block the door ... as it swings closed,'" she wrote in the footnote, quoting from a previous court decision.

Currie didn't include a similar footnote in his ruling in James' case. The dismissed indictment against her targets alleged conduct from 2020 to 2024, and falls under a 10-year deadline for bringing charges.

Comey lawyer hails victory 'for all American citizens'

Patrick Fitzgerald, a former senior Justice Department prosecutor who is one of Comey's defense lawyers, said in a statement that Comey's indictment was "a sad day" for the U.S. government, and that honest prosecutors were fired to clear the path for unlawfully prosecuting him.

"But today an independent judiciary vindicated our system of laws not just for Mr. Comey but for all American citizens," Fitzgerald added.

Fitzgerald also said Comey can't be re-indicted on the same charges because the legal deadline for bringing those charges has now expired.

‘An appeal is coming,' former DOJ chief of staff predicts

Chad Mizelle, the former Justice Department chief of staff to Attorney General Pam Bondi, said that dismissing the indictments was “the WRONG remedy” for the judge’s finding, because both indictments were ratified by senior DOJ leadership, including Bondi.

“This may delay justice, but it won’t stop it,” Mizelle said in one of a series of X posts. “An appeal is coming. Comey and James are not off the hook.”

Because Bondi and the other Justice Department officials ratified the indictments, Mizelle said, Halligan was properly appointed.

Will Chamberlain, senior counsel for the conservative Article 3 Project legal advocacy group, said that even if Halligan is forced off the case, the Justice Department should be allowed to seek another indictment of Comey because the original indictment was filed within the five-year statute of limitations.

Comey says Trump 'will probably come after me again'

In a video statement posted to Instagram shortly after the decision, Comey said he is grateful that the case against him was dismissed, but he doesn't believe the Trump administration is finished with him.

"I know that Donald Trump will probably come after me again," the former FBI director said. "And my attitude is going to be the same: I'm innocent, I am not afraid, and I believe in an independent federal judiciary – the gift from our founders that protects us from a would-be tyrant."

Comey also said the prosecution against him was brought by a corrupted Justice Department under Trump, based on "malevolence and incompetence."

That, he said, is why his case matters for the country as a whole.

"A message has to be sent that the President of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies," Comey said. "I don't care what your politics are, you have to see that as fundamentally un-American and a threat to the rule of law that keeps all of us free."

Mamdani 'very excited' by Letitia James' charges dismissal

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was asked for his response to James' charges being dismissed as he left an unrelated press conference Monday afternoon.

"Very excited," Mamdani responded, while walking away from the microphones.

James made her first public remarks after being indicted at an Oct. 13 campaign rally for Mamdani. She was greeted by a minute-long standing ovation at the event, and the room erupted into thunderous applause as she inveighed against what many view as Trump's politicization of the Justice Department.

"We see powerful voices trying to silence truth, punish dissent − and, yes, weaponize justice for political gain," James said.

The state New York attorney general supported Mamdani throughout the general election, including speaking at his June 24 Democratic primary victory party. Mamdani defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent was endorsed by Trump, in the general election.

– Ben Adler

Trump has encouraged prosecution of perceived rivals

Trump has encouraged the prosecution of several critics and perceived rivals beyond Comey and James, including his former national security adviser, John Bolton, and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona.

Legal experts have said Bolton could potentially argue he was prosecuted vindictively at the president’s direction.

Bolton was indicted in October for allegedly mishandling classified information. The charges are similar to an indictment of Trump after his first term for allegedly retaining national defense records after leaving the White House.

Trump’s charges were dropped after he won re-election in 2024, under longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said when he was charged that the facts of the case had been investigated years earlier and stem from portions of his diaries spanning a 45-year career.

Why a judge ruled Halligan was unlawfully serving as prosecutor

Currie's ruling that Halligan was unlawfully installed hinged on a law that generally allows the attorney general to appoint a U.S. attorney to fill a vacancy for 120 days. Once the appointment expires, the district court in the same region is authorized to fill the vacancy, according to the law.

Siebert was appointed interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia on Jan. 21, meaning by May 21, 120 days had lapsed since his appointment.

According to Currie, the attorney general then lost the ability to appoint someone to fill a vacancy at the head of that office.

"Consequently, I conclude that the Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid and that Ms. Halligan has been unlawfully serving in that role since September 22, 2025," Currie wrote.

Halligan’s appointment ‘a fatal legal flaw’ for the indictment, former DOJ officials warned

Legal experts, including some Justice Department officials, had warned that the federal indictment of Comey would face significant legal challenges – and potential dismissal – due to questions about how the Trump administration appointed Halligan.

Constitutional law experts and Democratic lawmakers in USA TODAY story published Oct. 8, that there was “a fatal legal flaw” in Comey’s Sept. 25 indictment because the department lacked the legal authority to appoint Halligan as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

“I think the appointment is invalid, and therefore the indictment is invalid,” said Ed Whelan, the principal deputy assistant attorney general for legal counsel under former President George W. Bush.

According to Whelan, the Justice Department cannot lawfully appoint a second interim U.S. attorney after appointing a first one whose term has expired.

He cited Section 546(d) of Title 28 of the United States Code, which authorizes an attorney general to appoint an interim United States attorney for a term of 120 days. After that, only “the district court for such district may appoint a United States attorney to serve until the vacancy is filled.”

Politicized prosecution? How Trump pick Lindsey Halligan was installed

Bondi appointed Lindsey Halligan, a former personal lawyer to Trump, after the previous head of the eastern Virginia federal prosecutors' office, Erik Siebert, left his role in September. Siebert reportedly expressed skepticism about bringing charges against Comey or James.

Siebert told colleagues in an email that he had resigned, although Trump later said he fired him.

Halligan was placed into the high-ranking prosecutorial role even though she has never been a prosecutor before. Trump appeared to call for Bondi to install Halligan in the office in a Sept. 20 social media post that also called for charges against Comey and James.

"I fired (Siebert), and there is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so. Lindsey Halligan is a really good lawyer, and likes you, a lot," Trump said in the post addressed to "Pam."

Within 48 hours of that post, Bondi issued an order authorizing Halligan to be the interim head of the office.

Could DOJ still attempt new charges?

The indictments were dismissed in a way that permits the Justice Department to attempt to secure new charges. However, it's unclear what the department can or will do.

In Comey's case, his lawyers have already argued that the legal deadline for bringing charges against him lapsed in between when his initial indictment was secured and the present day.

Comey was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding when he testified before a Senate committee in 2020. James was charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.

The Comey indictment dropped five days after Trump posted on social media Sept. 20 that Comey, James, and California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff were "all guilty as hell" and delay was not an option. The president didn't specify what the three targets were guilty of. James was indicted within three weeks of that post.

Letitia James 'heartened' by case dismissal

In a statement following the ruling, James said she was "heartened" by the victory.

"I remain fearless in the face of these baseless charges as I continue fighting for New Yorkers every single day," James said.

The Justice Department and lawyers for Comey didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for James, said in a statement Monday that Trump "went to extreme measures to substitute one of his allies to bring these baseless charges after career prosecutors refused."

"This case was not about justice or the law; it was about targeting Attorney General James for what she stood for and who she challenged. We will continue to challenge any further politically motivated charges through every lawful means available," Lowell added.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Judge dismisses DOJ charges against James Comey and Letitia James

Reporting by Aysha Bagchi, Bart Jansen and Josh Meyer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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