Senior U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, a Florence native who has been on the bench since 1994, tossed out separate criminal charges Monday against former F.B.I. Director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
In the case, which has national implications, the judge ruled a loyalist federal prosecutor installed by President Trump to bring the cases was put into her job unlawfully. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters on Monday that the Justice Department will appeal.
The decisions, filed Nov. 24, reaffirmed arguments made by attorneys for Comey and James that Trump’s prosecutor, former White House aide and interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan for the Eastern District of Virginia, was illegally appointed to try the case in the first place. Halligan was appointed by Trump in an interim capacity, replacing his previous pick, who was also serving in a temporary role. Currie ruled that it was unlawful to appoint two interim prosecutors in succession.
Currie also wrote that if she did not dismiss the indictments, the consequences to the criminal justice system would be enormous.
“It would mean the government could send any private citizen off the street — attorney or not — into the grand jury room to secure an indictment so long as the attorney general gives her approval after the fact,” she wrote. “That cannot be the law.”
The dismissal of charges without prejudice means the government could also try to refile them with another grand jury.
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