A federal judge dismissed a case against former FBI director James Comey on Monday, stating that the prosecutor behind the indictment had not been lawfully appointed to her position.
Comey was charged with lying to Congress and obstruction of a criminal proceeding related to his 2020 testimony about Russian interference in the 2016 election. He pleaded not guilty.
Last week, the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, was in the hot seat when a U.S. district judge questioned whether or not proper steps were taken in filing one of the two counts.
"Let me be clear that the second indictment, the operative indictment in this case that Mr. Comey faces, is a document that was never shown to the entire grand jury or presented in the grand jury room; is that correct?" the judge asked the federal prosecutors on Wednesday.
"Standing here in front of you, Your Honor, yes, that is my understanding," replied Tyler Lemons, the assistant U.S. Attorney leading Comey’s prosecution.
The next day, the federal prosecutors backtracked. Halligan put out a new statement that said the grand jury approved a two-count indictment against Comey after it rejected one of the original three counts initially brought by the Justice Department.
The latest filing described the cause of the confusion as a "clerical inconsistency."
Nevertheless, a judge tossed out the indictment on Monday, stating Halligan had no lawful authority to present it.
