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ALEXANDRIA, Va. – On Wednesday, former FBI Director James Comey is set to make another attempt to have his criminal charges dropped. His legal team will argue before a judge that the prosecution is not only unfounded but also driven by President Donald Trump’s personal vendetta against him.
This legal maneuvering comes at a time when the Comey case appears to be on shaky ground. Earlier this week, a judge harshly criticized the Justice Department, and there are several legal challenges to the indictment that could potentially lead to its dismissal.
Comey, who has entered a plea of not guilty to allegations of making a false statement and obstructing Congress, maintains his innocence. He challenges the legitimacy of the prosecutor, hastily appointed under the Trump administration, and claims he is being unfairly targeted due to Trump’s personal grudge against him. This central argument will be the focus of the discussions in a Virginia federal court.
Although motions claiming prosecutorial vindictiveness rarely succeed, Comey’s attorneys insist that the case should be dropped, describing it as a manifestation of the president’s desire for revenge. Trump dismissed Comey from his role as FBI Director in May 2017 while Comey was supervising an investigation into possible connections between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The tension between the two has been evident, with Trump publicly labeling Comey as “a weak and untruthful slime ball” and repeatedly calling for his prosecution.
Trump amplified his demands for Comey to be prosecuted with a September social media post in which he complained to Attorney General Pam Bondi about the lack of action against his political opponents. That night, he said he would appoint Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience, to the job of interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Halligan, who replaced a veteran prosecutor effectively forced from the job after not charging Comey or another Trump foe, New York Attorney General Letitia James, secured an indictment of Comey days later as the statute of limitations on the case was about to expire.
“Ample objective evidence — much of which comes directly from government officials’ own public statements and admissions — establishes that the government’s animus toward Mr. Comey led directly to this vindictive and selective prosecution,” Comey’s lawyers wrote in a motion filed last month.
The Justice Department has denied that the prosecution was vindictive or selective and insists that the allegations support the indictment.
The arguments Wednesday are being heard by U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff. On Monday, a different judge, U.S. Magistrate William Fitzpatrick, lambasted Halligan for her handling of the case, citing what he said was a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” in the process of securing the indictment.
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