DOJ Prosecutions - Political Adversaries & Internal Control

EDVA

Comey

Nov. 25 - Judge Cameron M. Currie (D.S.C.) on Monday granted motions to dismiss in the prosecutions against James Comey and Letitia James on the ground that Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as Interim U.S. Attorney violated 28 U.S.C. § 546 and the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. (Order to Dismiss Comey Indictment.) (Order to Dismiss James Indictment.) (WaPo.) Ed Whelan analyzed the dismissal orders. (National Review.)
Nov. 20 - Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan appeared to acknowledge in court on Wednesday that the full grand jury did not review the final indictment charging James Comey, prompting one of Comey’s lawyers to assert that “there is no indictment.” (WSJ.) (NYT.)
Nov. 19 - James Comey’s lawyers will appear in federal court in Virginia today to seek dismissal of the false-statements indictment against him on vindictive and selective prosecution grounds. (WSJ.)
Nov. 18 - Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff (E.D. Va.) on Monday granted in part the government’s emergency motion to stay Magistrate Judge Wiliam E. Fitzpatrick’s order directing the production of grand jury materials to James Comey’s defense and ordered the government to file any objections to Judge Fitzpatrick’s order by 5:00 p.m. on Nov. 19. (Order.) (ABC News.)
Nov. 17 - Judge William Fitzpatrick (E.D. Va.) on Monday ordered full disclosure of grand jury materials to James Comey, writing 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 court found that Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan appeared to make two “fundamental misstatements of the law” to the grand jury that may have tainted the process. (Memorandum Opinion.)
Nov. 17 - Halligan and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday submitted written statements addressing concerns raised by Judge Cameron Currie (E.D. Va.) that grand jury records from the indictment of James Comey were “missing.” (Politico.) (Informative Notice.) Halligan stated that a two-hour gap in the transcript reflected the grand jury’s private deliberation time. (Declaration.) Bondi reaffirmed that she ratified Halligan’s actions relating to the indictment. (Ratification.)
Nov. 6 - A federal magistrate judge in the Eastern District of Virginia on Wednesday ordered the Justice Department to turn over all grand jury materials and evidence seized from Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman, who has served as an adviser to Comey. (NYT.)
Nov. 5 - Judge Cameron McGowan Currie (E.D. Va.) ordered the government to provide a complete transcript or recording of all remarks made by U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan to the grand jury in former FBI Director James Comey’s case, after finding omissions in the materials previously submitted for in camera review. (Order.) Benjamin Wittes and Anna Bower analyzed the prosecution’s case against Comey. (Lawfare.)
Nov. 4 - The Justice Department filed a response to former FBI Director James Comey’s motion to dismiss his indictment based on vindictive and selective prosecution. (Response.) (NYT.)
Oct. 31 - Former FBI Director James Comey moved to dismiss his indictment, arguing that the 2020 Senate hearing questions from Sen. Ted Cruz that were used as a basis for the charges were “fundamentally ambiguous,” and that his “answers to them were literally true.” (Motion and Memorandum.) (NYT.) Comey also filed a motion to disclose the transcript and audio recordings of the grand jury proceedings. (Motion and Memorandum).
Oct. 28 - More than 100 former Justice Department officials collectively filed an amicus brief on Monday urging Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff (E.D. Va.) to dismiss charges against former FBI director James Comey. (WaPo.)
Oct. 21 - Former FBI Director James Comey on Monday filed motions to dismiss his criminal case based on vindictive and selective prosecution and on the allegedly invalid appointment of Lindsey Halligan as interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. (Motion to dismiss for vindictive & selective prosecution.) (Motion to dismiss based on invalid appointment of Ms. Halligan.) (NYT.)
Oct. 15 - Former FBI Director James Comey notified the Eastern District of Virginia that he intends to file a motion on Oct. 20 to dismiss his indictment on the ground that the U.S. attorney for the district was unlawfully appointed. (Notice of intent.)
Oct. 9 - Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty yesterday to the two charges of making a false statement and obstructing a congressional proceeding. His trial is set to begin on Jan. 5. (WSJ.)

James

Nov. 25 - Judge Cameron M. Currie (D.S.C.) on Monday granted motions to dismiss in the prosecutions against James Comey and Letitia James on the ground that Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as Interim U.S. Attorney violated 28 U.S.C. § 546 and the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. (Order to Dismiss Comey Indictment.) (Order to Dismiss James Indictment.) (WaPo.) Ed Whelan analyzed the dismissal orders. (National Review.)
Nov. 18 - New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday moved to dismiss her indictment for “outrageous government conduct” in violation of the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause. (Motion to dismiss.) James also filed a motion for the court to order the government to disclose certain grand jury records. (Motion for disclosure.)
Nov. 10 - New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday filed a motion in the Eastern District of Virginia to dismiss the indictment against her for vindictive and selective prosecution. (Motion to Dismiss.) (NYT.)
Nov. 5 - Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia told the court they would not comply with its Oct. 24 instruction to provide discovery on New York Attorney General Letitia James’s anticipated selective-prosecution motion, arguing that James must first meet a high evidentiary threshold before obtaining such materials. (Notice.)
Nov. 4 - The Justice Department also filed a consolidated response to Comey’s and NY Attorney General Letitia James’s motions to dismiss based on the allegedly unlawful appointment of interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan. (Response.) In an attachment to the response, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Halligan to the additional position of special attorney and ratified “her employment as an attorney of the Department of Justice from [September 22, 2025] going forward,” as well as her “actions before the grand jury and her signature on the indictments returned by the grand jury in each case.” (Order.)
Oct. 27 - A watchdog group warned the Justice Department and National Archives that Halligan’s use of disappearing Signal messages in communications related to the James case may violate the Federal Records Act. (Lawfare.)
Oct. 27 - New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty to charges of mortgage fraud in Norfolk federal court on Friday, with a trial date set for Jan. 26. (WSJ.) In the same proceeding, the presiding judge ordered that James’s anticipated motion to disqualify Trump-appointed interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan be consolidated with a similar motion by former FBI Director James Comey before a single outside‐district judge. (National Review.)
Oct. 20 - The Department of Justice reportedly dismissed an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia who had resisted President Trump’s demand to bring criminal charges against Letitia James. (NYT.)
Oct. 10 - The Department of Justice indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution. (Indictment.) James brought a civil bank fraud suit against the Trump family business in 2022 on behalf of New York. She called the charges against her “baseless” and “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.” (WSJ.)

Halligan

Nov. 25 - Judge Cameron M. Currie (D.S.C.) on Monday granted motions to dismiss in the prosecutions against James Comey and Letitia James on the ground that Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as Interim U.S. Attorney violated 28 U.S.C. § 546 and the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. (Order to Dismiss Comey Indictment.) (Order to Dismiss James Indictment.) (WaPo.) Ed Whelan analyzed the dismissal orders. (National Review.)
Nov. 13 - Campaign for Accountability, a progressive watchdog group, on Tuesday filed a bar complaint against Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, alleging that her role in the criminal cases against New York Attorney General James and former FBI Director Comey “constitute an abuse of power” and have “erode[d] public confidence in the legal profession.” (Complaint.) (ABC.)

Bolton

Oct. 20 - Former national security adviser John Bolton pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges that he illegally retained and transmitted national defense information. (NYT.)
Oct. 17 - The Justice Department on Thursday indicted John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser, for allegedly mishandling classified information. For background see a prior Roundup. (Indictment.) (WSJ.)

Bowser

Nov. 7 - The Department of Justice has reportedly opened a corruption investigation into D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser related to a 2023 trip, paid for by Qatar, that Bowser and four members of her staff took to Dubai for a United Nations conference. (NYT.)

Brennan

Nov. 10 - The Justice Department reportedly transferred an inquiry into former C.I.A. director John Brennan’s role in the 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian election interference to Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, who has issued subpoenas to former intelligence and FBI officials involved in the Russia probe. (NYT.)

Schiff

Nov. 21 - The Justice Department has opened an inquiry into whether some Trump administration officials, including Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte, mishandled or improperly shared information related to its mortgage-fraud probe of Sen. Adam Schiff. (WSJ.)