Link to related thread: bsky.app/profile/half...

Link to related thread: bsky.app/profile/half...

“Other officials in the Eastern District of Virginia have applied for jobs on the outside or have written memos justifying their actions in case they have to contest personnel actions or sue the department.”

“Since then, Justice Department appointees have fired without cause two career prosecutors who also objected to the Comey indictment.

“Mr. Siebert quit on Sept. 19, hours after the president called for his ouster.

“Erik S. Siebert, the district’s former U.S. attorney, came under pressure from Mr. Trump after telling his superiors in the Justice Department that there was not enough evidence against Mr. Comey or, in a separate potential case, Ms. James.

“The case has cast a corrosive pall over the Eastern District of Virginia, one of the most important federal prosecutor’s offices in the nation.

“Two prosecutors who work in the Eastern District of North Carolina, Tyler Lemons and Gabriel Diaz, gave official notice on Tuesday that they had been assigned to the case, according to court records.

“Ms. Halligan, who narrowly secured a two-count indictment after a shaky solo appearance before the grand jury, has had a hard time getting anyone in her new office to help her with the case, according to current and former prosecutors in the office.

“Mr. Comey faces up to five years in prison if convicted, though many current and former prosecutors believe the case will be difficult to prove — if his lawyers do not succeed in getting the charges quickly dismissed. He made no immediate public comments after the hearing.

Comey Pleads Not Guilty and Will Seek to Dismiss Charges as Vindictive

GIFT ARTICLE:

Comey Pleads Not Guilty and Will Seek to Dismiss Charges as Vindictive www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...

“The judge tentatively scheduled a follow-up hearing later this month and released Mr. Comey on his own recognizance with no restrictions on his travel or other activities.”

“The government told the judge that it expects Mr. Comey’s trial to last two to three days.

“Judge Nachmanoff said he would rule on the first and outsource the question of Ms. Halligan’s appointment to another judge.

“The second will seek to challenge what he called the illegal appointment of Ms. Halligan as U.S. attorney.

“The first will accuse the government of ‘vindictive’ and ‘selective’ prosecution based on Mr. Trump’s public demand that Mr. Comey be prosecuted.

“In the most significant development, Mr. Fitzgerald said he intended to file two motions to dismiss the case.

More on Comey’s initial appearance in federal court:

“Mr. Comey’s arraignment, for all its brevity, was considerably more eventful than typical preliminary proceedings.

The key difference is how prepared the attorney or witness is. If you’re just reading notes, you’re less convincing. And it’s easier for judges, opposing attorneys, or committee members to punch holes in your argument.

Even poorly prepared attorneys rely upon notes prepared by their subordinates.

I didn’t see it, but it doesn’t surprise me. Court appearances and Congressional testimony are performances. Well - prepared attorneys have a game plan for every hearing, & notes to remind themselves of key points.

In related news, oops:

bsky.app/profile/msnb...

“He said he still had not received specific details of the charges, including the identities of witnesses, beyond the two-page indictment approved by a split grand jury on Sept. 25.”

“Mr. Comey’s lead lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, vented his exasperation in the hearing, saying that his ‘first substantive contact’ with prosecutors came Tuesday night.

“That reluctance forced the White House to quickly insert a stand-in U.S. attorney to file the indictment.

“If the hearing offered a guide to the defense’s strategy, it revealed little new about a case deemed so weak by career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia that they refused to have anything to do with it.

“His lawyer said he would move to quickly dismiss the case, calling it a ‘vindictive’ and ‘selective’ prosecution.

From earlier in the article:

“James Comey, the former F.B.I. director targeted by President Trump, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges he lied to Congress.

“‘I’m a little skeptical,’ Judge Nachmanoff replied. ‘This does not appear to me to be an overly complicated case.’”

“The prosecutor, Nathaniel Tyler Lemons, drew the judge’s impatience when he suggested that the government needed time to introduce classified evidence and argued that the case, which hinges on a single accusation that Mr. Comey lied during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, was complex.