Judge Rules DOJ Errors May Threaten Comey Indictment

A magistrate judge in Virginia found that the Justice Department may have committed misconduct while investigating and prosecuting former FBI Director James Comey.

Moves that could lead to the case being dismissed.

Judge William Fitzpatrick wrote in a 24-page ruling issued on Monday that the Justice Department must release all grand-jury materials related to the Comey case to him by the end of the day and criticized the actions of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan during her presentation to the grand jury when seeking to charge Comey.

Comey is accused of lying to Congress.

"The facts set forth herein and the particularized findings of the Court establish that 'ground[s] may exist to dismiss the indictment because of a matter that occurred before the grand jury,'" Fitzpatrick wrote.

He wrote later in the ruling that "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."

The judge noted that while presenting to the grand jury, Halligan appeared to make two "fundamental and highly prejudicial misstatement" about the law and said the grand jury material that he previously ordered turned over to him are incomplete and "likely do not reflect the full proceedings."

Fitzpatrick added, "The court is finding that the government's actions in this case — whether purposeful, reckless or negligent — raise genuine issues of misconduct, are inextricably linked to the government's grand-jury presentation and deserve to be fully explored by the defence."

The judge described the order to release the grand-jury materials as "an extraordinary remedy" meant "to fully protect the rights of the accused" that is necessary, "given the factually based challenges the defense has raised to the government's conduct and the prospect that government misconduct may have tainted the grand jury proceedings."
 

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