The Justice Department stated in court paperwork on Tuesday that it plans to proceed its efforts to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey.
The division’s stance was revealed in a lawsuit introduced by the previous FBI’s director’s pal and former lawyer Dan Richman. It comes two weeks after Comey’s previous indictment was dismissed and after a choose put short-term limits on the proof prosecutors can use in future grand jury proceedings.
In the paperwork filed Tuesday — in a fast-moving court battle over proof used to research Comey over his statements to Congress 5 years in the past — the Justice Department refers back to the scenario as each a “pending criminal investigation” and “a potential federal criminal prosecution.”
The DOJ wrote to a federal choose that Richman’s lawsuit shouldn’t have the ability to stymie a felony 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 briefly locked down evidence the Justice Department had from Richman “has effectively enjoined the government from investigating and potentially prosecuting Comey.”
Federal investigators first gathered proof associated to Comey and Richman years in the past, getting warrants to entry Richman’s iCloud account, digital units and work e-mail at Columbia University, the place he’s a legislation professor. No felony costs got here from the investigation, which examined a attainable nationwide safety leak.
Yet the proof resurfaced in the Comey case this 12 months, because the Justice Department went again to Richman’s recordsdata to attempt to present a grand jury that Comey allegedly accredited Richman talking to the media in 2020 — a transfer prosecutors alleged the previous FBI director lied about when questioned by Congress.
Comey pleaded not responsible to mendacity to Congress earlier than the case in opposition to him was dismissed simply earlier than Thanksgiving by a choose who discovered the interim US legal professional, Lindsey Halligan, was serving in the position unlawfully.
NCS previously reported the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia was intending to return to a grand jury to try to revive the indictment in opposition to Comey.
Federal Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the DC District Court on Saturday night time briefly blocked the Justice Department from utilizing the Richman proof, possible disrupting prosecutors from trying to cost Comey again till the proof battle is resolved.
Before Comey’s case was dismissed, nevertheless, his authorized crew and a choose in Alexandria, Virginia, unearthed information about how the primary indictment was secured — discovering that it appeared to largely activate proof the grand jury noticed from the Richman investigation years in the past and may not have been ready to make use of.
The choose who reviewed the Comey grand jury information stated a few of that proof appeared to have been accessed with out correct court authorization and wasn’t legally accredited to be used in the Comey investigation this 12 months.
Those developments gave Richman the brand new alternative to problem this Justice Department, citing his personal constitutional protections in opposition to unlawful searches and seizures, however now, the Trump administration argues federal judges shouldn’t have the ability to cease felony prosecutions prematurely.
Richman shouldn’t have the ability to completely block the Justice Department from utilizing his recordsdata till after any trial “should the government obtain a new indictment of Comey,” the prosecutors argued to Kollar-Kotelly.
The Justice Department insists Halligan remains to be the US legal professional, inflicting chaos in the US attorney’s office and in the Northern Virginia federal court for the reason that ruling that eliminated her.
She is among the many prosecutors who signed the most recent court papers in the Richman proof battle, and is listed there as “United States Attorney, Eastern District of Virginia.”