A federal judge has slammed the Trump Justice Department for a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” in the case against former FBI Director James Comey.
U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick also warned that the botched probe could even result in the dismissal of one or more charges.
And in a humiliating blow for Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump’s handpicked prosecutor Lindsey Halligan, the DOJ has been ordered to overturn the entire set of grand jury materials to Comey as he seeks to get the charges against him dismissed.
“The Court recognizes that the relief sought by the defense is rarely granted,” Judge Fitzpatrick wrote in his blistering rebuke on Wednesday.
“However, the record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding,” he added.
The order represents the sharpest legal setback yet for Halligan, the former beauty pageant contestant who Trump installed to prosecute Comey after pushing out her predecessor in Virginia’s Eastern District.
According to Fitzpatrick, Halligan, who had never prosecuted a case prior to Comey’s, seemed to make “fundamental misstatements of law” to the grand jury that could jeopardize the indictment altogether.
She appeared to suggest Comey might have to testify at trial to explain his innocence, which was an improper characterization of the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
She also appeared to improperly suggest grand jurors could assume the government had more evidence against Comey than what it presented to them.
The judge also found that Comey’s rights may have been breached by the way evidence was used from another investigation more than five years ago.
The evidence was seized in searches of online accounts from Comey’s friend and then-lawyer Daniel Richman but didn’t result in charges.
However, Fitzpatrick said DOJ used the material without a new court-approved search warrant, and then failed to take the time to sift out confidential attorney-client communications when it charged Comey at the end of September.
“Here, the procedural and substantive irregularities that occurred before the grand jury, and the manner in which evidence presented to the grand jury was collected and used, may rise to the level of government misconduct resulting in prejudice to Mr. Comey,” Fitzpatrick wrote.
Fitzgerald, who was appointed in 2022, has now joined a growing number of jurists who have criticized the case against Comey.
The former FBI director is a longtime adversary of the president, who Trump blames for helping to trigger special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Comey pleaded not guilty last month to the charges against him, which relate to claims that he lied to Congress while giving testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020.
During that testimony, Comey was questioned about a 2017 leak of sensitive information to the media.
Prosecutors allege Comey falsely stated that he never authorized an anonymous source within the FBI to speak to the media about an investigation.
Comey, however, insists he is innocent and is now seeking to quash the case for selective and vindictive prosecution, based on Donald Trump’s public demand that Comey be charged.
He also argues that Halligan was serving illegally when she brought criminal cases against him.
“My family and I have known for years that there are costs for standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way,” he said in a video posted to social media after he was charged.
“We will not live on our knees and you shouldn’t either.”
Monday’s ruling is not the first time problems in the case have been exposed. Last week, the department under fire for what appeared to be gap in the transcript from the day the indictment was returned.
The official record abruptly ends well before the grand jury voted, raising the possibility that statements or instructions from Halligan may have gone unrecorded or undisclosed.
In a statement to the Daily Beast last week, the DOJ insisted there was no “missing time.”
“That time period refers to when the jurors were deliberating behind closed doors, which would not be included in a transcription,” the statement said.
But after reviewing the documents and timelines, the court found the explanation insufficient.
The Department of Justice declined to comment on the latest ruling.
