A federal judge threw out the indictments against James Comey and Letitia James on Monday, finding they were illegitimate because they were brought by an unqualified U.S. attorney.
Judge Cameron Currie dismissed the false statements charges against Comey and bank fraud charges against James without prejudice, meaning the charges could be brought again.
‘I conclude that the Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid and that Ms. Halligan has been unlawfully serving in that role since September 22, 2025,’ Currie wrote.
The Department of Justice could appeal the decision or attempt to bring the charges under a different U.S. attorney. Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The move to scrap two of the highest-profile criminal cases the DOJ has leveled against President Donald Trump’s political foes comes after the judge voiced skepticism at a recent hearing in Virginia about Lindsey Halligan’s ability to bring the charges as interim U.S. attorney.
Currie, a Clinton appointee based in South Carolina, was brought in from out of state to preside over proceedings about the question of Halligan’s authority because it presented a conflict for the Virginia judges. Comey’s and James’ challenges to Halligan’s appointment were consolidated because of their similarity.
Halligan acted alone in presenting charges to a grand jury days after Trump ousted the prior interim U.S. attorney, Erik Siebert, and replaced him with Halligan. At the same time, Trump urged Attorney General Pam Bondi in a social media post to act quickly to indict Comey, a call that came as the statutes of limitations in his case was about to lapse. Halligan, who had no prior prosecutorial experience when she took over one of the most high-profile federal court districts in the country, was the lone lawyer to present the cases to the grand jury and sign the indictments. No prosecutors from Virginia joined in on the case.
The DOJ has since put its full backing behind Halligan. Bondi attempted to ratify and then re-ratify the indictments after the fact, a move Currie suggested would not have been necessary if Halligan were a valid appointee.
DOJ attorney Henry Whitaker had argued during the hearing that the motions to dismiss Comey’s and James’ cases involved ‘at best a paperwork error.’
James’ attorney Abbe Lowell said Halligan was a ‘private person’ when she entered the grand jury rooms and completely unauthorized to be in them. Currie agreed, saying in her decision that retroactively validating Halligan and her actions would be unheard of.
‘The implications of a contrary conclusion are extraordinary,’ Currie wrote. ‘It would mean the Government could send any private citizen off the street — attorney or not — into the grand jury room to secure an indictment so long as the Attorney General gives her approval after the fact. That cannot be the law.’
