Justice Department Weighs Reviving Prosecution of James Comey as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche Prioritizes Pursuit of Trump’s Foes

Reports that the Department of Justice is weighing another push to prosecute James Comey put into sharp relief the Trump Administration’s focus on convicting the former FBI director, who played a key role in the investigation into Russian influence into the 2016 presidential election. Word that the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, plans to revive the case against Mr. Comey suggests that it is a top priority for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s successor at Main Justice. Criminal charges against Mr. Comey for lying to Congress were dismissed in November after the prosecutor in charge, Lindsey Halligan, was ruled to have been unlawfully appointed by Ms. Bondi.That same disqualification also resulted in the dismissal of the bank fraud case against New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. The postures of the prosecutions against Ms. James and Mr. Comey, though, are not quite identical. The DOJ convened two subsequent grand juries to indict Ms. James again, though both refused prosecutors’ entreaties to do so. All has been quiet, though, on the Comey front — at least in respect of public filings.The reluctance of the DOJ to reconvene immediately new grand juries to indict Mr. Comey is likely attributable to the timeline of the case against him. Mr. Comey — whose carefully curated image of patriotic rectitude was undermined by reports he was actively leaking to the press against Mr. Trump — was accused of lying to Congress in 2020 about those leaks related to the 2016 Russiagate investigation. That crime carried a statute of limitations of five years. Mr. Comey was charged by Ms. Halligan days before that expiration. The statute of limitations for Ms. James’s alleged false statements, which also date from 2020, is a decade.The judge who dismissed the cases against Mr. Comey and Ms. James, Cameron McGowan Currie, noted in a footnote in her ruling that generally indictments pause the statute of limitations, but not if the charges are invalid to begin with. The jurist, an appointee of President Clinton, appears to be alluding to Mr. Comey’s contention that the criminal case against him was “vindictive.” Judge Currie did not reach that claim, which was pending when she dismissed the case on appointment grounds.The government’s best argument for the keeping open the window to charge Mr. Comey is a federal law that mandates that “Whenever an indictment or information charging a felony is dismissed for any reason after the period prescribed by the applicable statute of limitations has expired a new indictment may be returned in the appropriate jurisdiction within six calendar months of the date of the dismissal of the indictment or information, or, in the event of an appeal, within 60 days.” The DOJ has already argued in court that “any reason” includes the dismissal of an indictment that is downstream from the disqualification of a prosecutor. Prosecutors read the law to mean that the circumstances in which a case can be preserved after the expiration of the underlying statute of limitations “obviously includes a defective appointment.” The law, though, prohibits bringing a new case if the indictment was dismissed for “some other reason that would bar a new prosecution.”Appellate courts have held that refiling charges prohibited only where the original indictment was dismissed for “some other reason that would bar a new prosecution.” Mr. Comey is likely to insist that a court first adjudicate his claim that the indictment was vindictive. He could point to Mr. Trump’s post days before Mr. Comey’s indictment that “Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.”DOJ attorneys have addressed that post, insisting that using it as a basis for a claim of vindictiveness “requires leaps of logic and a big dose of cynicism. There is no direct admission of discriminatory purpose. To the contrary, the only direct admission from the President is that DOJ officials decided whether to prosecute, not him.” The government acknowledges that the sentiments may “suggest that the President disfavors the defendant.”Another possibility for Mr. Blanche is that he could let the lying to Congress case lie fallow and instead push forward another case. Last month Mr. Comey was subpoenaed in a separate investigation that some government sources call a “grand conspiracy” probe that touches on the Russiagate investigation. That investigation has also ensnared the Obama-era director of the CIA, John Brennan. He has faced criminal referrals relating to his role in the 2017 intelligence assessment that alleged that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to benefit Mr. Trump.

Justice Department Weighs Reviving Prosecution of James Comey as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche Prioritizes Pursuit of Trump’s Foes

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