WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury correctly voted on the indictment of ex-FBI boss James Comey in September after prosecutors mistakenly instructed a decide that not all jurors noticed the ultimate model of the fees, in response to a brand new courtroom transcript.
Interim US Lawyer Lindsey Halligan submitted the transcript the day after a tense listening to in Alexandria, Va., on Wednesday, throughout which she had indicated solely “the foreperson and one other grand juror” handed up the indictment to US Justice of the Peace Choose Lindsey Vaala.
However a courtroom submitting from the US Lawyer’s Workplace within the Japanese District of Virginia on Thursday famous the transcript of the Sept. 25 continuing earlier than Vaala “conclusively refutes” that there was a difficulty with the method “and establishes that the grand jury voted on — and true-billed — the two-count indictment.”
“[A]ny assertion that the grand jury ‘by no means voted on the two-count indictment’ is contradicted by the official transcript,” Halligan’s workforce responded within the new courtroom papers — immediately contradicting claims from Comey’s protection workforce in courtroom that the fees had been void.
On Sept. 25, the grand jury voted on three counts towards the previous FBI Director — two for making false statements to Congress and one cost for obstructing justice — however one of many false statements fees wasn’t returned by a majority of the 23-member panel.
“It was the very first depend that we didn’t agree on,” the grand jury foreperson instructed Vaala, per the transcript, “and the Depend Two and Three had been then put in a special package deal, which we agreed on.”
A clerical error attributable to the redrafting of the indictment additionally briefly confused the Justice of the Peace decide’s understanding of what had occurred in the course of the grand jury’s deliberations, however it was shortly resolved.
“So that you voted on the one which has two counts?” Vaala requested.
“Sure,” the jury foreperson affirmed.
Halligan and Assistant US Attorneys Tyler Lemons and Gabriel Diaz in Thursday’s submitting wrote that the transcript “confirms the Courtroom’s recognition that the two-count true invoice is the legitimate, operative indictment.”
“The entire file eliminates any doubt: The foreperson confirmed the vote. The Courtroom acknowledged the vote. The Courtroom docketed the two-count true invoice because the operative indictment. Solely Depend One lacked concurrence; Counts Two and Three had been true-billed by not less than twelve jurors,” the prosecutors mentioned.
US District Choose Michael Nachmanoff had pressed Lemons towards the top of Wednesday’s 90-minute listening to about whether or not jurors had been by no means offered with the ultimate indictment.
Lemons, who had not but joined the prosecutorial workforce on the time of the indictment, recommended that not all jurors had seen the two-count model and Halligan mentioned solely two had been current when it was given to the decide.
Comey’s protection legal professional Michael Dreeben responded that, consequently, “no indictment was returned” earlier than the statute of limitations expired on Sept. 30.
Some former federal prosecutors claimed the misstep might be deadly to Halligan’s case, whereas others denied that there was a difficulty with redrafting the indictment after one of many counts failed — as long as the wording was equivalent to what jurors voted on and it was returned by the foreperson.
“The confusion arises solely from the Justice of the Peace decide’s misinterpretation of the executive correction eradicating Depend One from the indictment after the grand jury returned a real invoice on Counts Two and Three,” prosecutors additionally wrote in a Wednesday courtroom submitting.
“That adjustment merely mirrored the grand jury’s vote; it was neither uncommon nor improper.”
Precisely 5 years prior, Comey had testified in a Senate Judiciary Committee listening to that he had by no means licensed leaks to the media about high-profile FBI investigations — in statements reaffirming Could 2017 congressional testimony whereas he was nonetheless serving as bureau director.
The distinguished Trump critic oversaw each the bureau’s Crossfire Hurricane probe of alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign and the Russian authorities, in addition to the “Midyear Examination” investigation into Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal electronic mail server to view categorized data.
A lot of Wednesday’s listening to centered on the protection’s arguments to dismiss the case as a consequence of it being an allegedly selective and vindictive prosecution introduced by Halligan on the behest of President Trump.
Dreeben claimed that the president seen Comey as a political enemy and had a historical past of retaliating towards the previous FBI director for exercising his free speech rights. Attributable to that “sample,” the indictment ought to be correctly seen as “a political prosecution,” he famous.
Nachmanoff requested the protection legal professional whether or not he then seen Halligan as nothing greater than a “puppet” of the president, however Dreeben resisted agreeing with that characterization by the decide.
Lemons additionally rejected the notion, claiming the US legal professional “was not directed to hunt this prosecution.”
Halligan lashed out after the listening to in a press release to The Put up that Nachmanoff’s selection of phrases amounted to a “private assault.”
“The Judicial Canons require judges to be ‘affected person, dignified, respectful, and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, legal professionals, and others with whom the decide offers in an official capability’ … and to ‘act always in a way that promotes public confidence within the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary,’” she mentioned.
“My focus stays on the file and the legislation, and I’ll proceed to satisfy my duties with professionalism.”
Different motions from Comey’s legal professionals have tried to have the case thrown out by claiming the US legal professional was unlawfully appointed. They’ve additionally sought entry to grand jury supplies from the feds, the latter of which was not too long ago dominated upon by US Justice of the Peace Choose William Fitzpatrick within the protection’s favor.
Nachmanoff, who has but to difficulty a ruling on the movement to dismiss the case primarily based on it being a vindictive prosecution, additionally paused that order from Fitzpatrick pending an entire overview of prosecutors’ arguments searching for to overturn it, stemming largely from privilege issues expressed by the Division of Justice.
Comey is scheduled to move to trial on Jan. 5, 2026, and faces as much as 5 years in jail if convicted on each counts.
