WASHINGTON — Former FBI Director James Comey filed motions seeking the dismissal of the criminal charges brought against him, arguing that the lawyer President Donald Trump named to prosecute him, Lindsey Halligan, wasn't properly appointed and that the case was politically motivated.
Comey's team argued that the indictment arose from "multiple glaring constitutional violations and an egregious abuse of power by the federal government" and that the "bedrock principles of due process and equal protection have long ensured that government officials may not use courts to punish and imprison their perceived personal and political enemies."
Halligan, a former insurance lawyer who is now interim head of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, was “defectively appointed to her office as an interim U.S. Attorney,” Comey's attorneys argued, adding that her appointment “violated the congressionally designed and constitutionally compelled means for the Attorney General to appoint an official as interim U.S. Attorney.”
Comey's team went on to argue that "because no properly appointed Executive Branch official sought and obtained the indictment, the indictment is equally a nullity.”
Comey, one of several Trump critics targeted by the Justice Department this year, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, which focus on congressional testimony in 2020 when he stood by previous testimony he gave in 2017 regarding the authorization of leaks to the media when he was head of the FBI.
One of Comey’s exhibits submitted Monday is a 60-page filing with statements that Comey and Trump have made about each other.
The defense further argued that the Justice Department had maintained high standards of ethics for decades and brought cases only when they were supported by the facts and the law and that the charges were a “sharp departure” from that tradition.
“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 team wrote.
His attorneys also referred to the president’s September social media post in which he called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political foes. His attorneys said, “Less than 48 hours after President Trump’s post, Ms. Halligan was sworn in as interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Ms. Halligan was a special assistant to the President and White House official.”
Halligan's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday's filings.
Comey's attorneys noted that Halligan, who previously worked as a personal lawyer for Trump, lacked prosecutorial experience, adding that “no other prosecutor from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia participated in the grand jury presentation. Ms. Halligan presented the grand jury with a three-count indictment."
“Ms. Halligan’s unlawful appointment tainted the structural integrity of the grand jury process. Absent Ms. Halligan’s unlawful title, she would not have been able to enter the grand jury room, let alone present and sign an indictment,” they wrote.
