Legal battles initiated by Donald Trump against James Comey and Letitia James have been dismissed by the courts.

Judge Cameron Currie criticized Trump’s chosen attorney, Lindsey Halligan, for what she termed ‘prosecutorial misconduct’ following Halligan’s efforts to indict the former FBI director and the New York Attorney General.

Currie noted that Halligan, a former White House aide with no previous experience in prosecution, was not qualified for her role.

The 120-day limit for interim appointments had lapsed under the previous prosecutor, meaning Pam Bondi lacked the authority to appoint Halligan. This responsibility fell to the federal judges of the district.

“I find that all actions resulting from Ms. Halligan’s flawed appointment, including the indictment of Mr. Comey, represent unlawful exercises of executive authority and must be nullified,” Currie, who was appointed by Bill Clinton, stated in her ruling.

Both Comey and James asked that their cases be dismissed and that the prosecutor be disqualified because of the manner of her appointment. 

The defendants in the two separate cases asked for the indictments to be dismissed with prejudice, which means the Justice Department would not be able to bring the same charges against them. But the judge dismissed with prejudice. 

Comey was charged with making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding relating to his 2020 Senate testimony, where he denied authorizing FBI officials to leak information to the press. 

A judge threw out the case against James Comey, who had been indicted fo lying to Congress

They pointed to grand jury errors from the charges secured by Lindsey Halligan 

New York Attorney General Letitia James, seen in 2024, was ‘heartened by today’s victory’

James was indicted on charges including bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution concerning information on mortgage applications that prosecutors alleged was falsified.

Halligan, a former beauty queen, was named to the job of interim US Attorney for Virginia in September.

Before her appointment, Erik Siebert, a different interim attorney, was forced out amid pressure from Trump to file charges against his political enemies. 

Comey’s lawyers argued that after Siebert was forced out, the judges should have had exclusive say over who would fill the vacancy.

But it was ultimately Trump who moved forward and nominated Halligan as he publicly pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against Comey and James.

‘JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!’ the President wrote on Truth Social at the time.

Comey was indicted days later on charges of making a false statement and obstructing Congress, and James was charged soon after that in a mortgage fraud investigation.

Donald Trump speaks to members of the press before departing the White House on Marine One in Washington, D.C., on November 22

In a statement, James said, ‘I am heartened by today’s victory and grateful for the prayers and support I have received from around the country.’

‘I remain fearless in the face of these baseless charges as I continue fighting for New Yorkers every single day,’ the New York attorney general, a Democrat, said.

Judges have separately disqualified interim US attorneys in New Jersey, Los Angeles and Nevada, but have permitted cases brought under their watch to move forward.

But lawyers for Comey and James had argued that Currie’s ruling needed to go even further because Halligan was the sole signer of the indictments and the driving force behind them.

Comey has for years been one of Trump’s chief antagonists.

Appointed to the job in 2013 by President Barack Obama, Comey, at the time of Trump’s 2016 election, was overseeing an investigation into whether his presidential campaign had conspired with Russia to sway the outcome of the race.

Furious over that investigation, the President fired Comey in May 2017 and the two officials have verbally sparred in the years since.

James has also been a frequent target of his ire, especially since she won a staggering judgment against him and the Trump Organization in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements.

An appeals court overturned the fine, which had ballooned to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a lower court’s finding that Trump had committed fraud.