Embattled former FBI Director James Comey demanded his case be dismissed Friday, arguing that “basic errors” had been made within the “reckless and ill-conceived” try to prosecute him for allegedly mendacity to Congress and obstructing justice.
Comey, in a 29–web page submitting in an Alexandria, Va., federal court docket, cited alleged grand jury rule and Fifth Modification violations by interim US Lawyer Lindsey Halligan in his bid to dismiss the Sept. 25 indictment in opposition to him.
“These errors mirror the reckless and ill-conceived nature of this prosecution: A president intent on prosecuting Mr. Comey earlier than the statute of limitations expired directed the appointment of a White Home aide, Lindsey Halligan, as interim U.S. Lawyer, and he or she then rushed to safe an indictment whereas flagrantly violating fundamental grand jury guidelines within the course of,” Comey’s authorized crew wrote.
“These grand jury errors warrant dismissal twice over,” they added.
The doc focuses on alleged “basic errors within the grand jury course of,” which got here up throughout a listening to earlier this week and protection attorneys fleshed out within the submitting.
The grand jury “by no means permitted the operative indictment,” protection attorneys declare.
“At the very least 12 jurors didn’t concur within the operative two-count indictment; and the grand jury rejected the one indictment that the federal government introduced to it,” the submitting states. “The federal government’s try to prosecute Mr. Comey and not using a legitimate ‘indictment of a Grand Jury’ violates the Fifth Modification.”
The argument stems from confusion that arose when Halligan prompt earlier this week that solely “the foreperson and one other grand juror” had been current when the indictment was handed up.
Comey’s crew argues the comment alerts that the requisite variety of jurors didn’t see the ultimate model of the indictment, after jurors rejected one of many counts in opposition to the previous FBI director within the three-count indictment.
Nonetheless, prosecutors within the US Lawyer’s Workplace for the Jap District of Virginia, led by Halligan, are adamant that federal grand jury procedures had been accurately adopted.
In their very own submitting Thursday, Halligan’s crew offered the court docket with a transcript from the grand jury proceedings which they argue contradicts the protection crew’s declare.
“[A]ny assertion that the grand jury ‘by no means voted on the two-count indictment’ is contradicted by the official transcript,” Halligan’s crew wrote.
The transcript “confirms the Court docket’s recognition that the two-count true invoice is the legitimate, operative indictment,” their submitting continued.
Within the transcript, the grand jury foreperson affirmed – when requested by the choose overseeing the grand jury – that jurors voted on the indictment with the 2 counts.
“The whole report eliminates any doubt: The foreperson confirmed the vote. The Court docket acknowledged the vote. The Court docket docketed the two-count true invoice because the operative indictment. Solely Depend One lacked concurrence; Counts Two and Three had been true-billed by no less than twelve jurors,” the prosecutors stated.
Within the protection submitting, Comey’s attorneys countered that “there isn’t any report of the grand jury seeing the brand new indictment — not to mention voting on it.”
They describe the prosecution’s efforts to clear up what occurred within the grand jury courtroom as “late-breaking” and resting on an “inaccurate overreading of an ambiguous alternate between the grand jury foreperson and the Justice of the Peace choose.”
Comey’s submitting goes on to argue that “dismissal is independently warranted due to the federal government’s misconduct earlier than the grand jury.”
“Amongst different issues, the federal government relied on data it obtained in violation of the Fourth Modification and the attorney-client privilege; and it made critical misstatements of regulation to the grand jury,” the protection crew argues.
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.
