Attorney general vows to appeal dismissal of criminal cases against ex-FBI director Comey and NY attorney general James
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. A US judge has dismissed criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James, concluding that the prosecutor handling the cases was unlawfully appointed.
District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-installed prosecutor who secured the indictment against two of the president’s most noted adversaries, was illegally appointed to her position as US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia.
The decision is a major win for Comey, who was charged with lying to Congress five years ago, and James, who was charged with mortgage fraud. Both denied any wrongdoing.
The rulings are seen by some as a major setback to Donald Trump’s apparent attempts to punish his political rivals through the criminal justice system.
The attorney general, Pam Bondi, said she will “take all available legal action, including an immediate appeal” after the judge dismissed the cases.
After the ruling, Comey said he was grateful a prosecution “based on malevolence and incompetence” had ended, but suggested Trump could “come after” him again.
Responding to Comey’s statement, Bondi told reporters that she was “not worried about someone who has been charged with a very serious crime,” adding that “his alleged actions were a betrayal of public trust.”
Key events
Trump tells advisers he’s planning to speak directly with Maduro – report
According to a report from Axios, Donald Trump is planning to speak directly with Nicolás Maduro, even though the US designated the Venezuelan president as the head of a foreign terrorist organization on Monday.
A US official said a date has not been set for the call, which is reportedly “in the planning stages”.
Despite widespread doubts over its actual existence, the US yesterday designated the Cartel de los Soles (Spanish for Cartel of the Suns) as a foreign terrorist organisation – and claims it is headed by Maduro and senior figures in his government.
The designation authorises Trump to impose fresh sanctions targeting Maduro’s assets and infrastructure.
But as my colleague Tom Philips notes in this story, many suspect it is a pretext to overthrow Maduro who Trump tried, but failed, to topple during his first term.
Since August, Trump has ordered a huge naval deployment off Venezuela’s northern coast and a series of deadly airstrikes on alleged narco-boats travelling the Caribbean Sea.
Observers believe Monday’s decision could be the pretext for some kind of imminent US military intervention on Venezuela soil. “Nobody is planning to go in and shoot him or snatch him — at this point. I wouldn’t say never, but that’s not the plan right now,” one official told Axios.
Venezuela has said the supposed Cartel de los Soles is “nonexistent” and dismissed Washington’s designation as “a despicable lie” designed to justify “an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela in the classic US regime-change format”.
Prosecutors were alarmed when Lindsey Halligan, who had no prosecutorial experience and was the most junior lawyer on Donald Trump’s personal legal team, was sworn in as the interim US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia in September.
She was installed as the top prosecutor in Virginia after her predecessor resisted pressure to file criminal charges against James Comey, who had an antagonistic relationship with Trump.
Comey was fired by the president in 2017, during his first term in office, after leading an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
Days after being appointed, Halligan personally secured an indictment against Comey. The White House has stuck to its position that she was legally appointed and qualified for the job.
She was among the lawyers who represented Trump in civil litigation after his Mar-a-Lago resort was raided in a search for classified documents.
Before joining the White House, Halligan was an insurance lawyer in Florida.
Attorney general vows to appeal dismissal of criminal cases against ex-FBI director Comey and NY attorney general James
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. A US judge has dismissed criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James, concluding that the prosecutor handling the cases was unlawfully appointed.
District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-installed prosecutor who secured the indictment against two of the president’s most noted adversaries, was illegally appointed to her position as US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia.
The decision is a major win for Comey, who was charged with lying to Congress five years ago, and James, who was charged with mortgage fraud. Both denied any wrongdoing.
The rulings are seen by some as a major setback to Donald Trump’s apparent attempts to punish his political rivals through the criminal justice system.
The attorney general, Pam Bondi, said she will “take all available legal action, including an immediate appeal” after the judge dismissed the cases.
After the ruling, Comey said he was grateful a prosecution “based on malevolence and incompetence” had ended, but suggested Trump could “come after” him again.
Responding to Comey’s statement, Bondi told reporters that she was “not worried about someone who has been charged with a very serious crime,” adding that “his alleged actions were a betrayal of public trust.”
