George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Monday that former FBI Director James Comey and Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James could still face charges, despite a judge saying the federal prosecutor was improperly appointed.
James was accused in October on charges of mortgage fraud related to her purchase of a home in Virginia while Comey was accused in September on charges of obstruction of Congress and lying. Turley told America Reports co-hosts Jon Robers and Sandra Smith that dismissal At issue was not the merits of the charges, but whether interim U.S. Attorney Lindsay Halligan of the Eastern District of Virginia was properly appointed. (RELATED: Scott Jennings Forces Democratic Representative to Admit He Supports Judges Forcing Trump to Spend Money, Which Congress Never Approved)
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“Letitia James may be celebrating too early. The problem here is not the charges themselves, but essentially the police officer or, in this case, the prosecutor,” Turley said. “So the court is not saying that she did this – that she is innocent of these charges. The court is simply saying that the person who signed the charges did not have the authority to do so. So the obvious thing here is to find someone who is legally qualified to fill that role.”
“Usually after 120 days, the district court will appoint someone to replace them. They'll have to figure that out,” Turley continued. “It's pretty uncharted territory here to ensure that the next person who signs won't be asking questions like that. They could also appeal. They've already passed the original date, but the argument is that they have the right to go back to the grand jury. They can say we think we have a strong argument that yes, there are those 120 days, but we have some pretty new changes that we don't think lead to that final date and that we had the opportunity to use Halligan just like we did.”
Senior U.S. District Judge Cameron Curry of the Eastern District of Virginia, a Clinton appointee, ruled that Halligan was not properly appointed as interim U.S. attorney because Halligan's predecessor, Eric Siebert, had exhausted the 120-day limit for interim prosecutor when he was appointed under statute.
“Everything about this charge seems pretty rushed and improvisational,” Turley said. “When the Comey indictment came down, I noticed that it seemed kind of divisive. They threw out that count, and the other two counts didn't quite fit together, and you get an idea of how quickly they had to get this done, and that, I think, didn't sit well with this judge.”
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