Ruling stated the appointment of prosecution attorney Lindsey Halligan, who is a former personal lawyer to the president, was unlawful\n<\/p>\n
The ruling throws out two cases Mr Trump had publicly called for as he pressured Justice Department leaders to move against high-profile figures who had criticised him and led investigations into his conduct.<\/p>\n
Lindsey Halligan, a former personal lawyer to Mr Trump, was named interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in September to take over both investigations despite having no previous prosecutorial experience.<\/p>\n
The findings by US district judge Cameron McGowan Currie come after both Mr Comey and Ms James accused the Trump Justice Department of violating the US Constitution\u2019s Appointments Clause and federal law by appointing Ms Halligan in September.<\/p>\n
The rulings amount to a stunning rebuke of the administration\u2019s efforts to target Mr Trump\u2019s political opponents, as well as its legal manoeuvering to hastily install a loyalist prosecutor willing to file the cases.<\/p>\n
Ms Currie found that Ms Halligan \u201chad no legal authority\u201d to bring indictments against either Mr Comey or Ms James. But Ms Currie dismissed the cases \u201cwithout prejudice\u201d, giving the Justice Department an opportunity to refile the cases with a different prosecutor at the helm.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll actions flowing from Ms Halligan\u2019s defective appointment,\u201d Ms Currie wrote, were \u201cunlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am heartened by today\u2019s victory and grateful for the prayers and support I have received from around the country,\u201d Ms James said in a statement. Her attorney, Abbe Lowell, said Ms James would \u201ccontinue to challenge any further politically motivated charges through every lawful means available\u201d.<\/p>\n
A lawyer for Mr Comey and a spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to install Ms Halligan to the post after her predecessor Erik Siebert declined to pursue charges against Mr Comey or Ms James, citing a lack of credible evidence in both cases.<\/p>\n
Shortly after her appointment, Ms Halligan alone secured indictments against Mr Comey and Ms James after other career prosecutors in the office refused to participate.<\/p>\n
Mr Comey has pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements and obstructing Congress. Ms James has pleaded not guilty to charges of bank fraud and lying to a financial institution.<\/p>\n
Attorneys for Mr Comey and Ms James argued that Ms Halligan\u2019s appointment violated a federal law they said limits the appointment of an interim US attorney to one 120-day stint.<\/p>\n
Repeated interim appointments would bypass the US Senate confirmation process and let a prosecutor serve indefinitely, they said. Mr Siebert previously had been appointed by Ms Bondi for 120 days and was then reappointed by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, since the Senate had not yet confirmed him in the role.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for the Justice Department argued the law allows the attorney general to make multiple interim appointments of US attorneys. Still, Ms Bondi sought to shore up the cases by separately installing Ms Halligan as a special attorney assigned to both prosecutions. In that same document, she also said she ratified the indictments.<\/p>\n
The challenge to Ms Halligan\u2019s appointment was one of several efforts lawyers for Mr Comey and Ms James have made to have the cases against them thrown out before trials. Both also argued that the cases are \u201cvindictive\u201d prosecutions motivated by Mr Trump\u2019s animosity.<\/p>\n
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said yesterday Democratic US senator Mark Kelly has been singled out for investigation into possible breaches of military law because he is subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, unlike other lawmakers who called on US military members to defy \u201cillegal orders”.<\/p>\n
Mr Kelly joined a handful of other Democratic lawmakers \u2013 Senator Elissa Slotkin, and Representatives Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan \u2013 for a 90-second video message to American troops.<\/p>\n
Mr Hegseth said in a post on X that five of the six lawmakers do not fall under Defence Department jurisdiction, stating that \u201cone is CIA and four are former military but not \u2018retired,\u2019 so they are no longer subject to UCMJ\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, Mark Kelly (retired Navy Commander) is still subject to UCMJ \u2013 and he knows that,\u201d Mr Hegseth stated.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon\u2019s statement, which was posted on social media, cited a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the defence secretary for possible court-martial or other measures. Mr Kelly served in the US Navy as a fighter pilot before becoming an astronaut. He retired at the rank of captain.<\/p>\n
He wrote on X yesterday: \u201cIn combat, I had a missile blow up next to my jet and flew through anti-aircraft fire to drop bombs on enemy targets. At Nasa, I launched on a rocket, commanded the space shuttle, and was part of the recovery mission that brought home the bodies of my astronaut classmates who died on Columbia.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecretary Hegseth\u2019s tweet is the first I heard of this. I also saw the President\u2019s posts saying I should be arrested, hanged, and put to death.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ruling stated the appointment of prosecution attorney Lindsey Halligan, who is a former personal lawyer to the president,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-200239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115613069808443625","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}