https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/09/politics/james-comey-dan-richman-justice-department-prosecuting The Justice Department said in court documents on Tuesday that it plans to continue its efforts to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey.The department’s stance was revealed in a lawsuit brought by the former FBI’s director’s friend and former lawyer Dan Richman. It comes two weeks after Comey’s previous indictment was dismissed and after a judge put temporary limits on the evidence prosecutors can use in future grand jury proceedings.In the documents filed Tuesday — in a fast-moving court battle over evidence used to investigate Comey over his statements to Congress five years ago — the Justice Department refers to the situation as both a “pending criminal investigation” and “a potential federal criminal prosecution.”The DOJ wrote to a federal judge that Richman’s lawsuit shouldn’t be able to stymie a criminal prosecution.The lawsuit, the Justice Department wrote, “is actually a collateral motion aimed at hindering the government from using (Richman’s) property as evidence in a separate criminal proceeding.” The court that temporarily locked down evidence the Justice Department had from Richman “has effectively enjoined the government from investigating and potentially prosecuting Comey.”
The Richman evidenceFederal investigators first gathered evidence related to Comey and Richman years ago, getting warrants to access Richman’s iCloud account, digital devices and work email at Columbia University, where he is a law professor. No criminal charges came from the investigation, which examined a possible national security leak.Yet the evidence resurfaced in the Comey case this year, as the Justice Department went back to Richman’s files to try to show a grand jury that Comey allegedly approved Richman speaking to the media in 2020 — a move prosecutors alleged the former FBI director lied about when questioned by Congress.Comey pleaded not guilty to lying to Congress before the case against him was dismissed just before Thanksgiving by a judge who found the interim US attorney, Lindsey Halligan, was serving in the role unlawfully.CNN previously reported the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia was intending to go back to a grand jury to attempt to revive the indictment against Comey.Federal Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the DC District Court on Saturday night temporarily blocked the Justice Department from using the Richman evidence, likely disrupting prosecutors from attempting to charge Comey again until the evidence battle is resolved. Before Comey’s case was dismissed, however, his legal team and a judge in Alexandria, Virginia, unearthed information about how the first indictment was secured — finding that it appeared to largely turn on evidence the grand jury saw from the Richman investigation years ago and may not have been able to use.The judge who reviewed the Comey grand jury records said some of that evidence appeared to have been accessed without proper court authorization and wasn’t legally approved for use in the Comey investigation this year.
Those developments gave Richman the new opportunity to challenge this Justice Department, citing his own constitutional protections against illegal searches and seizures, but now, the Trump administration argues federal judges shouldn’t be able to stop criminal prosecutions prematurely.Richman shouldn’t be able to permanently block the Justice Department from using his files until after any trial “should the government obtain a new indictment of Comey,” the prosecutors argued to Kollar-Kotelly. The Justice Department insists Halligan is still the US attorney, causing chaos in the US attorney’s office and in the Northern Virginia federal court since the ruling that removed her.She is among the prosecutors who signed the latest court papers in the Richman evidence battle, and is listed there as “United States Attorney, Eastern District of Virginia.”
More lawffare by trump.Ironic given Comey is one of the big reasons he was installed as president in 2016.
>>1463772>The Justice Department insists Halligan is still the US attorney, causing chaos in the US attorney’s office and in the Northern Virginia federal court since the ruling that removed her.>She is among the prosecutors who signed the latest court papers in the Richman evidence battle, and is listed there as “United States Attorney, Eastern District of Virginia.”Hilarious
>>1463786She needs to go like Habba did. Literally all filings under her will fail because she is effectively impersonating the position.
>>1463769So when they fuck it up again what will their cope be this time?
>>1463795They will blame liberals and leftists like they always do even though none were involved.
>>1463792She was an insurance lawyer and has no idea how to prosecute a case. I wouldn't care if they let her try again so she will fail again and make even more of a fool of Trump who appointed her.
>>1463786How is this legal? Assume trump's next coup fails an we get a democrat who isn't a gutless coward like Biden, will Halligan be a day on prosecution?
>>1463769Lol - the powers that be should give Comey 1 day in prison because Trump’s vendettas are POINTLESS & self defeating.
>>1463799Even if she did, all the defense has to do is effectively point out "hey she legally isn't in her position and thus cannot file charges as part of that position" and the judge literally has to dismiss it. On a legal level, Halligan is effectively impersonating a position she does not have, and the Justice Department cannot bring charges because they currently have no leader to serve those charges.
The thing that sucks the most about all this is the massive payday Comey is going to receive.
>>1463973You know, to a normal non-Democrat, prison sex isn't a payment it's a tax.
>>1463975>thinks Comey is actually going to prisonkek just like Hillary and Obama, right?
>>1463976Well, it would be nice. But no. It;s all one big club of shitheads. They won't lock up anyone.Speaking of, what's the current Scooby-Doo plot to get dRumpf this week?
>>1463979>still using "dRumpf" 10 years laterYou faggots out yourselves every single time.
>>1463979>Guys the pedophilia is just a scooby doo plotYour president fucked kids and is actively trying to cover it up.
>>1463981Which one? Clinton, Biden, Bush, Obama? I know they did. That's the only way to explain some of the laws they signed into power.
>>1463980Still trying to get dRumpf 10 years later. You know, I still use "dRumpf" to make fun of you, right?
>>1463984What's it like perpetually living in 2016? Russia, if you're listening...
>>1463987It was nice before Biden ordered Mr. Putin to assail Ukraine to destroy evidence of his and his son's obvious corruption.
>>1463988Cool headcanon, gramps.
>>1463993I do think it's funny that magats are so obsessed with the Hunter's dick pics that they think they're worth going to war over. >The cock and balls on this laptop are so special that they're the only possible reason Putin could have invaded Ukraine
>>1464184Keep in mind we saw nearly all of the Biden clan's cocks.
Can we talk about the actual law for a second, instead of just power politics?How exactly does the executive branch function if they aren't able to appoint attorneys to their positions? These are not average citizens being prosecuted. If the system is so broken that only the peasantry at the bottom need fear prosecution, why allow it to continue existing?
>>1464341This isn't about Trump's power to appoint attorneys, it's about Trump's failure (again) to appoint someone competent for an important job.
>>1464341>How exactly does the executive branch function if they aren't able to appoint attorneys to their positions?The executive branch isn't supposed to function without the advice and consent of Congress. You're treating an inability to act unilaterally as a bug when it's a feature. Checks and balances.>If the system is so broken that only the peasantry at the bottom need fear prosecutionThis is literally the most corrupt administration in history, how the fuck is letting it be more corrupt going to benefit the peasantry? I'm sure the peasants want their only voices in government to be imprisoned on Trumped up charges by a career felon and his mob of crooks.
>>1463979>They won't lock up anyoneYeah for some reason Dem administrations convict corrupt officials and Republican administrations pardon them, then go after innocent officials on charges that never stick.Remind me again why you voted for the guy pardoning every elected official he can find from drug kingpins to serial fraudsters?
>>1464342>This isn't about Trump's power to appoint attorneysThat's exactly what it's about. Before this year I'd never heard the argument that a prosecutor was "illegally appointed," now it's happening all the time, and not just to Trump's appointees.If nobody has the legal authority to prosecute the politically powerful, how does the system continue surviving under the weight of its own corruption?Here's another question - how many peasants had their convictions thrown out when Letetia James was disqualified as prosecutor in Trump's case? Would it surprise you that the answer is zero?
>>1464349Before this year no president had appointed an unqualified insurance attorney to be a prosecutor.
>>1464351Call me when he's stealing women's luggage from airports on multiple occasions while wearing a dress.
>>1464349>>1464361Hey, retard. The issue is that US attorneys need to be confirmed to their positions by the Senate, which both Halligan and Habba weren't. Instead, Trump tried to effectively sneak them into their positions by having them serve as interim appointees and never submitting a proper one, effectively attempting to make their temporary position into a permanent one and bypassing the Senate entirely.Of course, the government is set up so that people can't just fucking do that and ignore the entire checks and balances system via basic loophole abuse; interim appointees have a limit on both what they can do and how long they can be in their position. When Trump's attorneys hit that time limit, they no longer were valid in their position and were effectively pretending to be in positions they did not legally have. The reason you've never heard of this before is because every other president recognized this and actually got their attorneys confirmed to their position by the Senate. And all these case dismissals are why no one tried this trick before; if the attorney serving the order is not legally in their position, then any motions they file are inherently invalid and HAVE to be dismissed.
>>1464341>How exactly does the executive branch function if they aren't able to appoint attorneys to their positions?There is nothing stopping them from submitting someone who'd actually get approved by the senate to be confirmed. Maybe they should try doing that.
Rejected by a grand jury three times already. But hey, anything is a distraction at this point.
>>1464369sounds more like a Senate problem than a POTUS problem
>>1464361>Call me when he's stealing women's luggage from airports on multiple occasions while wearing a dress.He raped a woman.
>>1464374That's still more normal.
>>1464372No, it's a POTUS problem. He never even tried to submit them.
>>1464391Arguing that Donald slept through civics class at this point might be a good idea for maga. That way they can claim he's always slept through meetings, using that as evidence he's not just doing it because he's senile.
>Justice Department fails to indict Letitia James AGAINLMAOOOOOOOO! Ain't no fucking way.At least she deserves her inevitable payout.
>>1464507If a prosecutor fails to get an indictment from a grand jury, it's because they punted the case, not because the case was weak. It literally doesn't matter how weak the case is, they can always get an indictment.They literally just use this system as an excuse to avoid the personal liability of getting caught protecting their own. Surely you already knew that without me saying it.
