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A federal judge on Monday dismissed the criminal cases brought against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, two prominent foes of President Donald Trump.
Judge Cameron Currie threw out both cases on the grounds that the prosecutor handpicked by Trump who brought the charges was unlawfully appointed.
Comey, 64, was charged in September with making false statements to Congress in what has been widely seen as a campaign of retribution by the president against his political opponents.
James, a 67-year-old Democrat known for successfully prosecuting a fraud case against Trump, faced legal challenges herself the following month. She was charged with one count of bank fraud and another for making false statements to a financial institution.
Lawyers representing New York Attorney General Letitia James have criticized the Trump administration’s actions in their case, labeling them as “outrageous government conduct.” They argue that the fraud charges leveled against her are “unconstitutional.” Source: Getty / Pacific Press
Dismissing the indictment without prejudice leaves open the possibility of the charges being filed again, although the statute of limitations in the Comey case may have since expired.
Comey and James also sought to have the indictments dismissed on the grounds they were a vindictive prosecution. Those arguments were heard by a different judge.
Another Trump critic, his former national security advisor John Bolton, has been indicted on 18 counts of transmitting and retaining classified information.
Comey was appointed to head the FBI by then-president Barack Obama in 2013 and was fired by Trump in 2017.
The charges against Comey came days after Trump publicly urged Bondi to take action against the former FBI director and others he sees as enemies — a stunning departure from the principle that the Justice Department must be free from White House pressure.
Since taking office in January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against perceived enemies, purging government officials he deemed to be disloyal, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him and pulling federal funding from universities.
