Trump officials vow to quickly act on Comey case — here’s where things stand

Senior Trump officials in recent days reiterated their plans to explore “all options” to move forward with criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey after a judge last week dismissed his case on the grounds that the interim US attorney charged with prosecuting the case had been appointed illegally.

Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed last week to “immediately appeal” the judge’s ruling, which also threw out a separate case brought by the same prosecutor against New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI and Justice Department are exploring other options to keep the Comey case alive.

“The judicial process can make whatever decision it wants, but we at the FBI and our partners at the Department of Justice have many options moving forward, and we are implementing all of them,” Patel said. Afternoon times In an interview Saturday.

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“And we are implementing all of these options,” Patel said. “We’re not finished.”

Patel did not explain what this process might entail.

But his comments are the latest indication that the Trump administration has no plans to back down from the Comey case, even in the face of what appear to be steep legal hurdles.

Here’s what we know about the dismissal of Comey’s criminal case and what hurdles the Trump administration may face in efforts to revive it.

Where things stand

Comey was indicted in September on one count of lying to congress while testifying before a Senate subcommittee in 2020 and one count of obstruction stemming from the same event.

Trump announced a few days ago that Halligan will head the Eastern District of Virginia to replace interim US Attorney General Eric Seibert. Seibert resigned under pressure to indict Comey and New York Attorney General James, as Fox News and other media previously reported.

Comey’s lawyers quickly filed two motions to dismiss his criminal case, including on the grounds that Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney and former White House aide who presented the case to a grand jury, was illegally appointed.

That question was reviewed by U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie, an outside judge who ultimately sided with Comey’s lawyers in the matter.

“Because Ms. Halligan did not have the legal authority to file the indictment, I will grant Mr. Comey’s request and deny the indictment,” Curry said.

James Comey seeks dismissal of his criminal case, citing ‘retaliatory’ prosecution

President Donald Trump welcomes then-FBI Director James Comey during an event at the White House in 2017.

The Trump administration is free to seek to appeal Currie’s dismissals to the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, and Bondi pledged to do so “immediately” last week at a conference in Memphis.

Judge Corey also rejected both Comey case And James’ case is “without prejudice” — a detail that could leave the door open for the government to secure new indictments, if it chooses to do so.

But any attempts to bring new charges against Comey or James will be further delayed by an appeals court review. It is unclear how long this process could take, and many court observers have declined to speculate on the process, given the many uncertainties that remain.

Statute of limitations concerns

The Comey case in particular raised unique and potentially difficult questions for the Justice Department.

Comey was charged with making false statements to Congress and obstructing his testimony in September 2020. Both charges had a five-year statute of limitations that expired on September 30 — just three days after Bondi Halligan was appointed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

It is unclear whether the judge’s order “resets the clock” on the statute of limitations under federal law, as Trump’s allies have said. The law gives the Trump administration an additional six months from the date of Curry’s dismissal to recharge Comey.

Under the same law, a dismissal by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit would trigger a 60-day deadline for the Trump administration to recharge Comey.

Curry’s ruling addresses only one of the two main issues that Comey’s lawyers have cited in their efforts to dismiss his criminal case, and any attempt to revive the case or overturn the dismissal is widely expected to be included in the second motion to dismiss.

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US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, Virginia (Photo by Bonnie Cash/Getty Images) ((Bonnie Cash/Getty Images))

Retaliatory and selective prosecution

Comey’s lawyers have filed not one, but two motions to dismiss his criminal case. The second case seeks to do so as a result of what Comey’s lawyers said was a “retaliatory” and selective prosecution by the Justice Department.

“President Trump has directed the Department of Justice to prosecute Mr. Comey for personal malice and because Mr. Comey has repeatedly criticized the President for his conduct in office,” Comey’s lawyers, Patrick Fitzgerald and Jessica Carmichael, said in the dismissal motion, which was filed in late October.

The proposal comes during a tense, years-long relationship between Trump and the former FBI director, which Comey’s lawyers said supports their claims that the indictment “arises from multiple egregious constitutional violations and egregious abuses of power by the federal government.”

Unlike the motion to dismiss the case on the grounds of the illegality of Halligan’s appointment, which was reviewed by an outside judge, Comey’s motion to dismiss was scheduled to be heard by U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, the district judge assigned to the Comey case.

It is expected to take effect immediately, if the Court of Appeals overturns Currie’s ruling, as motions to dismiss must be reviewed by the court before a criminal trial begins.

It is also certain to include witness testimony from Trump officials familiar with the case to talk about steps the administration took in the lead-up to indicting Comey, the timing of the charges against him, and who in the administration ordered certain actions.

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Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel during a press conference. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Comey’s lawyers asked Judge Nachmanoff to dismiss the case with prejudice, a finding that, if accepted, would prevent the government from seeking to recharge Comey with the same proceedings.

However, it is very difficult to advance a case on the basis of selective or retaliatory prosecution, and in order to do so, Comey’s legal team must prove to the court that prosecutors were acting with genuine hostility in bringing the case against him — and that prosecutors targeted him because of that hostility.

However, his lawyers presented an abundance of evidence in their filing that they argued satisfies that burden, which primarily includes statements and admissions made by Trump and senior administration officials.

“Objective evidence demonstrates that President Trump ordered the prosecution of Mr. Comey in retaliation for Mr. Comey’s public criticism and to punish Mr. Comey for personal malice,” his lawyers said.

Short of outright dismissal, the next steps are expected to include additional discovery and an evidentiary hearing.

Next steps

Meanwhile, Bondi told reporters that Halligan will also remain in her position in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

As of this writing, neither the Trump administration nor Comey’s lawyers appear to believe the issue is moot.

Comey’s lawyers vowed to continue the fight after his case was dismissed. “We will continue to challenge any further politically motivated charges through all available legal means,” Comey’s lawyer, Abe Lowell, said in a statement last week.

Comey himself also spoke about the matter in a video posted last week on social media.

Shortly after his case was dismissed, Comey said Trump “will probably come after me again, and my position will be the same.” “I am innocent. I am not afraid. I believe in an independent federal judiciary.”

Senior officials in the Trump administration have said much of the same.

“This will not be the final word on this,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said last week.

For his part, Patel hinted in the interview on Saturday that the Trump administration is preparing “multiple” responses, which may come sooner rather than later.

As for timing, Patel said, “Stay tuned for right after Thanksgiving,” though he declined to provide further details, due to what he said was the appeals court process.

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The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Patel’s statements, or on the next steps in the Comey case.