The Justice Department on Monday appealed the dismissal of its criminal cases against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, making good on its vow to revive both cases despite what appear to be significant legal and procedural hurdles.
Lawyers for the Trump administration appealed both cases Monday to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va.
‘The power to appoint an interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 546 during the current vacancy lies with the district court until a U.S. Attorney is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate,’ the Justice Department said in its appeal.
Both appeals challenge a ruling handed down by U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie in November, which found that former Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan was illegally appointed to her role as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Because Halligan was unlawfully appointed — and was the sole prosecutor who secured the indictments — Currie ruled that the indictments were invalid and dismissed both cases without prejudice.
‘Ms. Halligan has been unlawfully serving in that role since September 22, 2025,’ Currie said in an opinion filed in both cases.
‘All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment’ as a result, he said, ‘constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside.’
Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed then to ‘immediately’ appeal the decision, and FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI and Justice Department are exploring other options to keep the case against Comey alive.
James was charged with two counts of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution during her 2020 purchase of a home in Norfolk, Virginia.
Comey was charged with making false statements to Congress and for obstruction related to his testimony in September 2020.
Currie dismissed Comey’s case and James’ case ‘without prejudice’ – a detail that left the door open for the government to secure new indictments.
Prosecutors ultimately attempted, without success, to re-indict both Comey and James, prompting new questions about the strength of the case.
Federal prosecutors twice tried and failed to secure a new indictment against James from grand juries in Norfolk and then in Alexandria. Neither effort was successful.
In Comey’s case, a separate judge ordered prosecutors to erase certain evidence – including emails and data – that had played a central role in the Justice Department’s case.
Comey’s case also raises statute-of-limitations concerns, as both charges carried five-year limits that expired Sept. 30 – just three days after Bondi installed Halligan at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
It is unclear whether the judge’s order ‘resets the clock’ on the statute of limitations under a federal law, as Trump’s allies have argued it should.
Under the same law, a dismissal by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals would trigger a 60-day window for the Trump administration to re-indict Comey.
The Justice Department notified the lower court Monday that it had filed both requests to the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
