![\"ab99a2cfc6f514cc429cec50618ec710.webp\"](\"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ab99a2cfc6f514cc429cec50618ec710.webp.jpg\" "\\"ab99a2cfc6f514cc429cec50618ec710.webp\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
On November 24 local time, U.S. District Judge Curry pleaded guilty to a violation of the procedure for the appointment of prosecutor Lindsay Halligan to lead both cases, dropped criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letizia James. \u201cAll actions arising from MS. . Halligan’s flawed appointment constitute an unlawful exercise of executive power and must be The US judge dismissed the government’s allegations against the former FBI Director over the illegal exercise of executive power with”Strong political motives”<\/p>\n
On November 24 local time, U.S. District Judge Curry pleaded guilty to a violation of the procedure for the appointment of prosecutor Lindsay Halligan to lead both cases, dropped criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letizia James. “All actions arising from MS. . Halligan’s flawed appointment constitute an unlawful exercise of executive power and must be revoked,” Curry said in written comments, according to the Washington Post<\/p>\n
Halligan, a former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, was appointed by the Justice Department in September to serve as interim federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, replacing interim prosecutor Siebert, in charge of the investigation into Cormie and James. She had no previous experience as a prosecutor. According to the Associated Press, Siebert had told the government there was not enough evidence to support an indictment, but within days of taking over the investigation Halligan decided to refer both cases to a grand jury. In the end, within weeks, a grand jury approved indictments accusing Comey of perjury and obstruction of Congress, and James of making false statements in loan documents. But their defence team insisted from the start that the case was strongly politically motivated and that there were irregularities in the prosecution process.<\/p>\n
Curry noted that Siebert’s term as interim prosecutor had in effect ended in May and that the attorney-general had no power to appoint any new interim prosecutors, so Halligan’s appointment would be ultra vires. Under federal law, the attorney-general appoints temporary prosecutors for a maximum period of 120 days; after that period, if the Senate does not confirm the appointment, the power to appoint them is transferred to a local federal judge. In his ruling, Curry wrote that because of the fundamental flaws in the appointment, all actions taken by the appointee before the grand jury and in the public prosecution were an unlawful exercise of executive power and had no legal effect.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department has argued that the president has wider discretion in temporary appointments and can even compensate for Senate confirmation of absences through continuing appointments. But Curry argues that this logic renders the confirmation mechanism set up by Congress toothless. His final ruling was in line with previous district court rulings in similar disputes.<\/p>\n
US media said that while Curry had dropped all current charges, that would not prevent the Justice Department from re-bringing charges in the future by a different prosecutor. However, Curry also points out that there are statutes of limitations. Cormie is accused of perjury in his testimony to Congress in 2020, but the statute of limitations on the charges runs out on the day he is charged. The judge suggested it was”Too late” for the Justice Department to try to bypass the statute of limitations by a”Provisional indictment”, making it widely seen as almost impossible to reopen the Comey case. Comey’s F. Scott Fitzgerald added that there was no legal space for a re-prosecution if the appointments were found to be illegal.<\/p>\n
According to the Associated Press, the legal challenge to Halligan’s appointment is just one of many that Comey and James have mounted against the indictments, which they both claim are vindictive, it is a typical example of the”Politicization and weaponization” of the Justice Department. After the announcement of the verdict, “I am grateful that the court has ended the charges against me, which were brought in bad faith and are heartbreaking,” Cormie, who pleaded not guilty to perjury and obstruction of Congress, said in a video statement. “I am heartened by today’s victory and grateful for the support I have received from all across the country,” James said in a separate statement<\/p>\n
U. S. Media said that the closure of the two cases is more of a procedural victory, the controversy behind it is far from over. Comey has feuded with the White House over leading an investigation in 2016 into whether the Donald Trump campaign colluded with Russian meddling in the election, while James has had a tense relationship with the White House over pushing a New York state civil fraud case against the Trump Organization. Since his return to the White House, he has repeatedly and publicly asked the Justice Department to speed up the investigation and prosecution of Comey and James. A White House spokesman was reported as saying the ruling was”Not final” and that the Justice Department would appeal against Curry’s decision.revoked,\u201d Curry said in written comments, according to the Washington Post<\/p>\n
Halligan, a former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, was appointed by the Justice Department in September to serve as interim federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, replacing interim prosecutor Siebert, in charge of the investigation into Cormie and James. She had no previous experience as a prosecutor. According to the Associated Press, Siebert had told the government there was not enough evidence to support an indictment, but within days of taking over the investigation Halligan decided to refer both cases to a grand jury. In the end, within weeks, a grand jury approved indictments accusing Comey of perjury and obstruction of Congress, and James of making false statements in loan documents. But their defence team insisted from the start that the case was strongly politically motivated and that there were irregularities in the prosecution process.<\/p>\n
Curry noted that Siebert’s term as interim prosecutor had in effect ended in May and that the attorney-general had no power to appoint any new interim prosecutors, so Halligan’s appointment would be ultra vires. Under federal law, the attorney-general appoints temporary prosecutors for a maximum period of 120 days; after that period, if the Senate does not confirm the appointment, the power to appoint them is transferred to a local federal judge. In his ruling, Curry wrote that because of the fundamental flaws in the appointment, all actions taken by the appointee before the grand jury and in the public prosecution were an unlawful exercise of executive power and had no legal effect.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department has argued that the president has wider discretion in temporary appointments and can even compensate for Senate confirmation of absences through continuing appointments. But Curry argues that this logic renders the confirmation mechanism set up by Congress toothless. His final ruling was in line with previous district court rulings in similar disputes.<\/p>\n
US media said that while Curry had dropped all current charges, that would not prevent the Justice Department from re-bringing charges in the future by a different prosecutor. However, Curry also points out that there are statutes of limitations. Cormie is accused of perjury in his testimony to Congress in 2020, but the statute of limitations on the charges runs out on the day he is charged. The judge suggested it was\u201cToo late\u201d for the Justice Department to try to bypass the statute of limitations by a\u201cProvisional indictment\u201d, making it widely seen as almost impossible to reopen the Comey case. Comey’s F. Scott Fitzgerald added that there was no legal space for a re-prosecution if the appointments were found to be illegal.<\/p>\n
According to the Associated Press, the legal challenge to Halligan’s appointment is just one of many that Comey and James have mounted against the indictments, which they both claim are vindictive, it is a typical example of the\u201cPoliticization and weaponization\u201d of the Justice Department. After the announcement of the verdict, \u201cI am grateful that the court has ended the charges against me, which were brought in bad faith and are heartbreaking,\u201d Cormie, who pleaded not guilty to perjury and obstruction of Congress, said in a video statement. \u201cI am heartened by today’s victory and grateful for the support I have received from all across the country,\u201d James said in a separate statement<\/p>\n
U. S. Media said that the closure of the two cases is more of a procedural victory, the controversy behind it is far from over. Comey has feuded with the White House over leading an investigation in 2016 into whether the Donald Trump campaign colluded with Russian meddling in the election, while James has had a tense relationship with the White House over pushing a New York state civil fraud case against the Trump Organization. Since his return to the White House, he has repeatedly and publicly asked the Justice Department to speed up the investigation and prosecution of Comey and James. A White House spokesman was reported as saying the ruling was\u201cNot final\u201d and that the Justice Department would appeal against Curry’s decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On November 24 local time, U.S. District Judge Curry pleaded guilty to a violation of the procedure for the appointment of prosecutor Lindsay Halligan to lead both cases, dropped criminal… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260,257],"tags":[3758,3760,741,3761,3759],"views":173,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7292"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7296,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7292\/revisions\/7296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}