A federal judge has 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 rulings from US District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie halt at least for now two prosecutions that had targeted two of the president’s most high-profile political opponents and amount to a stunning rebuke of the Trump administration’s legal manoeuvring to install an inexperienced and loyalist prosecutor willing to file cases.

The orders do not concern the substance of the allegations against Mr Comey or Ms James but instead deal with the unconventional manner in which the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was named to

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