Washington, D.C. — November 25, 2025 — In a landmark ruling that has sent shockwaves through the U.S. legal system, a federal judge on Monday dismissed criminal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, declaring the appointments of the prosecutor who brought the cases unconstitutional and invalid. The decision by U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie in South Carolina represents a significant rebuke to President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, which has faced widespread accusations of weaponizing federal power against political adversaries since Trump’s inauguration for a second non-consecutive term in January 2025.
Judge Currie, a Bill Clinton appointee, ruled that interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan — a former Trump personal attorney with no prior prosecutorial experience — lacked legal authority to secure the indictments. In two separate but simultaneous 29-page and 26-page opinions, the judge described Halligan’s appointment as a “defective exercise of executive power” that violated the U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause and federal statutes governing interim U.S. attorney roles. “All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside,” Currie wrote, dismissing both cases without prejudice — meaning the charges could theoretically be refiled by a properly appointed prosecutor.
The dismissals cap months of intense legal scrutiny over Halligan’s rapid installation in the Eastern District of Virginia, a jurisdiction known as the “rocket docket” for its efficiency in high-profile cases. Halligan, a White House aide during Trump’s first term and a member of his 2023–2024 criminal defense team, was sworn in as acting U.S. attorney on September 22, 2025, after Trump abruptly removed her predecessor, G. Zachary Terwilliger, who had reportedly expressed reservations about pursuing the charges. Terwilliger, himself a Trump appointee from the first administration, was ousted amid reports that career prosecutors in his office had deemed the evidence against Comey and James insufficient for indictment.
Halligan moved with extraordinary speed. Just three days after taking office, she personally presented evidence to a grand jury and secured Comey’s two-count indictment on September 25, 2025 — one day before the five-year statute of limitations was set to expire. James was indicted on October 9, 2025, on charges related to a 2020 mortgage application. Both defendants pleaded not guilty and immediately moved to dismiss, arguing vindictive prosecution driven by Trump’s personal animus.
The ruling builds on an earlier November 17, 2025, order by Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick in Virginia, who in a scathing 24-page opinion granted Comey’s defense team rare access to grand jury materials. Fitzpatrick, while stopping short of dismissal, lambasted the prosecution for “profound investigative missteps” that “potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding.” He highlighted “fundamental misstatements of the law” by Halligan that could amount to government misconduct prejudicial to Comey, including irregularities in evidence collection and presentation. “The record points to a disturbing pattern,” Fitzpatrick wrote, noting that such extraordinary relief is “rarely granted” but justified by “genuine issues of misconduct.”
Comey, 65, had been charged with one count of making false statements to Congress and one count of obstructing a congressional proceeding, stemming from his September 30, 2020, testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Prosecutors alleged he lied about authorizing leaks related to the FBI’s 2016 investigations into Russian election interference and Hillary Clinton’s emails. However, a 2018 Justice Department inspector general report had already concluded that “the overwhelming weight of evidence” showed Comey did not authorize the leak in question — a finding that severely undermined the indictment’s foundation. Comey, appointed FBI director by President Barack Obama in 2013 and dramatically fired by Trump in May 2017 amid the Russia probe, has remained one of Trump’s most visible and vocal critics.
James, 66, faced charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution over a 2020 Virginia home purchase she allegedly misrepresented as a secondary residence to obtain a lower interest rate. The alleged misrepresentation saved her roughly $19,000 over the life of the loan. James’s team called the charges baseless, noting that a Republican career prosecutor had previously declined to pursue them for lack of evidence. James, who as New York Attorney General successfully prosecuted Trump for business fraud in a civil case that resulted in a $450 million judgment (later vacated on appeal but upheld on liability), had sought dismissal on identical vindictiveness grounds.
These cases are part of a broader and highly public campaign of retribution in Trump’s second term. On September 20, 2025, Trump posted on Truth Social explicitly urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to indict Comey, James, and others he considers enemies, writing: “Pam: We can’t delay any longer... JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” Within 48 hours, Bondi appointed Halligan under a rarely used 120-day interim statute, bypassing Senate confirmation. Halligan then overruled career prosecutors and personally obtained both indictments.
The pattern extends beyond Comey and James. Former National Security Adviser John Bolton was indicted in Maryland on October 16, 2025, on 18 Espionage Act counts for allegedly transmitting and retaining over 1,000 pages of classified notes to family members via personal email during his 2018–2019 White House tenure. Bolton called the revived probe — originally closed during the Biden administration — “revenge-driven.”
Since taking office on January 20, 2025, Trump has pursued an aggressive agenda against perceived adversaries. In his first 100 days, more than 100 individuals and institutions were targeted through firings, investigations, revoked security clearances, frozen federal grants, and funding cuts to universities deemed “anti-American.” At least 12 inspectors general were removed, dozens of career Justice Department officials were purged, and law firms that previously represented Trump’s opponents faced IRS audits and contract bans.
Attorney General Bondi vowed an immediate appeal of Monday’s dismissals, insisting the government would “take all available legal action” to hold Comey and James accountable. White House officials dismissed Judge Currie as partisan. Comey’s legal team, led by former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, predicted any appeal would fail and warned that refiling the charges by a legitimate prosecutor would violate due process.
Civil liberties organizations condemned the broader pattern as a dangerous erosion of democratic norms. As the cases now head toward higher courts, the twin dismissals stand as a rare judicial check on what critics have called an unprecedented politicization of federal law enforcement in the second Trump administration.
