The midday post was a platform. This is a courthouse that has not typed an opinion.
Reuters, Richmond, Sept. 15: the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday considers the Justice Department’s bid to revive the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie tossed both last November on the ground that Lindsey Halligan, the Trump ally who brought them, was not lawfully appointed. The cases were dismissed without prejudice. That is not an acquittal. It is not a new indictment.
The argument, Reuters said, is likely to focus on whether former Attorney General Pam Bondi had authority to appoint Halligan as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Currie: Halligan’s 120-day interim stint violated the vacancy statute, and she secured both indictments by herself. Justice Department lawyers: Currie’s reading would wrongly limit the attorney general’s power to name interim U.S. attorneys across 94 offices. Lawyers for Comey and James: the government’s theory would let a president keep loyalists in place indefinitely and evade Senate confirmation.
Comey’s lawyers, in a filing quoted by MS NOW: “The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that actions taken by someone who lacks a valid appointment are void.” James’s lawyers: when Halligan presented the case to the grand jury and signed the indictment “entirely on her own,” she “was not a government prosecutor.” Currie, on the Comey dismissal: a contrary rule would let the government send “any private citizen off the street” into a grand jury “so long as the Attorney General gives her approval after the fact.” “That cannot be the law.”
We will not invent how the panel voted. We will not type a mandate. A hearing is not a restored charge.
What this means for you
If you needed Comey or James convicted, you still do not have a trial. If you needed Halligan reinstated, wait for an opinion. Charges that were dismissed are not convictions that were reversed.
Bottom line: Richmond heard the appointment fight. Currie already dismissed. No ruling in this file.
GLHR NEWS explains the news. Not investment, tax, or trading advice. Do your own work before you act.
