Justice Department admits grand jury did not review final Comey indictment

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey’s grand jury did not receive a copy of the final indictment against him, according to the US Department of Justice.

Comey’s attorneys sought to have the indictment dismissed from court on Wednesday as a result of that revelation.

Comey’s attorneys argued at a 90-minute hearing in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, that the case should be completely dismissed because of both President Donald Trump’s interventions and the prosecution’s errors.

One of three well-known Trump critics who has been charged between late September and the middle of October is Comey.

Comey’s attorneys claimed that Trump was using the legal system as a tool for political retribution at the hearing, which took place before US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff.

Michael Dreeben, the attorney for the prosecution, described the indictment as “a blatant use of criminal justice to achieve political ends,” saying, “This is an extraordinary case and it merits an extraordinary remedy.”

The Justice Department argued that the indictment passed the legal test for trial hearing, as evidenced by prosecutor Tyler Lemons.

However, Lemons did acknowledge, under questioning, that the grand jury that decided the indictment had not seen the final draft.

The prosecutor responded, “That is my understanding,” when Judge Nachmanoff inquired if Lemons had never seen the final version.

It was the Justice Department’s most recent error in its investigation of Comey, who is accused of lying to senators under oath and obstructing a congressional investigation.

Comey has entered a not-guilty plea to the other charges, and his defense team has spearheaded a multifaceted legal fight to have the case dropped due to numerous irregularities.

Intolerance toward grand jury proceedings

Since last week, rumors had been rifling about the indictment and what the grand jury had seen.

US District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie posed questions on November 13 regarding a time when it appeared that the grand jury proceedings had been “no court reporters present.”

Then, on Tuesday, Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick demanded that the Comey defense team receive the grand jury’s materials, citing “a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps.”

The grand jury probably did not go over the final indictment in full, despite the use of false search warrants from the prosecution and the use of separate search warrants.

In a separate question, Judge Nachmanoff questioned acting US Attorney Lindsey Halligan on Wednesday during the hearing.

She acknowledged after receiving repeated questions that only the grand jury’s foreperson and a second grand jury were present when the indictment was returned.

Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former National Security Advisor John Bolton were the three people charged in the three indictments.

All three of them have argued that their prosecution is a step in the direction of political vengeance, and they have all denied any wrongdoing.

Spotlight on the Trump-Comey conflict

Comey’s attorneys pointed to statements Trump made that pushed for the indictments during Wednesday’s hearing, which aimed primarily at establishing that argument.

The tension between Comey and Trump, which dates back to the president’s decision to fire Comey from his position as FBI director in 2017, was raised by Comey’s defense team.

Trump’s victory in the 2016 election had drawn mixed reviews of Comey’s investigation into the FBI.

For instance, Trump called his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, a “slime ball,” a “phony,” and “a real nut job,” while also accusing the former FBI director of going easy on him.

In that he gave Hillary Clinton a free pass for many bad deeds, FBI Director Comey said in a tweet in May 2017, Trump wrote that the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Meanwhile, Comey quickly established himself as a prominent critic of the Trump administration.

He is not considered medically unfit to serve as president, he said. Comey told ABC News in 2018 that he believes he is morally unfit to serve as president.

A president must “embody respect” and adhere to fundamental principles, such as truth-telling, he added. Comey remarked, “This president is unable to do that.”

Comey’s defense also cited the string of circumstances that led to the former FBI director’s arrest at Wednesday’s hearing.

Comey and James were called “guilty as hell” by Trump in a message to Attorney General Pam Bondi last September, and Trump urged her to “delay any longer” in seeking their indictments on social media.

According to Dreeben, Comey’s attorney, that statement “effectively admitted that this is a political prosecution.”

Halligan was sworn in as the Eastern District of Virginia’s acting US attorney shortly after the message was posted online.

She reportedly replaced Erik Siebert, the prosecutor, who had reportedly declined to charge Comey and others due to lack of evidence. Trump had labeled him a “woke RINO,” an abbreviation for “Republican in name only,” when asked about it.

Dreeben argued that Switcheroo also spelled out Trump’s vindictive intentions and his involvement in the Comey indictment.

Source: Aljazeera