A federal judge on Nov. 24 dismissed indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, holding that the prosecutor who brought the indictments was invalidly appointed.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie said that “all actions” flowing from the appointment of Lindsey Halligan, whom the Trump administration named as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, were “unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.”
Currie dismissed the indictments without prejudice, but the statute of limitations has already passed for the charges in Comey’s case.
Currie’s decision focused on 28 U.S.C. Section 546, which allows interim attorneys to serve for 120 days, further providing that district courts “may appoint” a U.S. attorney to fill vacancies at the end of that timeframe if the Senate hasn’t already appointed a replacement….