Comey decides to dismiss Trump nomination case

James Comey’s lawyers told a federal judge in Alexandria on Tuesday that they plan to file a motion early next week to formally dismiss his criminal case, citing what they say is President Donald Trump’s “illegal” appointment of former White House aide Lindsey Halligan as acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, shortly before Comey’s indictment.

The filing is part of a broader effort by Comey’s legal team to have the criminal case dropped. His lawyers told the judge overseeing the case last week that they plan to file a separate motion seeking to dismiss the case on the grounds of vindictive prosecution.

Tuesday’s filing is not a formal motion but notice to the court of its intent to challenge Halligan’s appointment as acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District. Doing so will require a “judge outside the district” to hear the motion, as they said in the filing.

The move is part of a broader salvo by Comey’s legal team to have his criminal case thrown out, amid what they say is a politically motivated effort pursued by a lawyer with no prosecutorial experience who previously worked as Trump’s personal attorney and a White House aide.

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Lindsey Halligan, special assistant to the president, speaks with a reporter outside the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

Trump announced in September that he would nominate Halligan to serve as lead prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, replacing acting attorney Erik Siebert who resigned under pressure to indict Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Comey’s lawyers had previously suggested that Halligan’s appointment, three days before his indictment, could strengthen their motion to dismiss the case.

“We believe this is an illegal appointment,” Comey’s lawyers said.

Comey’s criminal case emerged as a political lightning rod, punctuating years of publicity and simmering tensions between Trump and his former FBI director, whom he fired in 2017, less than halfway into Comey’s ten-year tenure as head of the FBI.

Comey used his memoir, “A Higher Loyalty,” and subsequent public appearances to take umbrage with Trump and publicly criticize actions he took during his first term. Trump continued to attack Comey and examine his tenure at the FBI, including pushing for an investigation and grand jury.

Halligan finally obtained the indictment from a grand jury in Alexandria just days before the statute of limitations to bring the case expired.

Halligan, a former Florida insurance lawyer, said the charges against Comey “represent intentional criminal acts and enormous breaches of public trust.”

“No one is above the law,” she told reporters last month.

While the indictment drew praise from some Trump officials and allies, it also drew criticism from others, who said the case showed how far Trump was willing to go to punish his perceived political enemies.

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FBI Director James Comey greets President Donald Trump during the inaugural reception for law enforcement and first responders at the White House January 22, 2017, in Washington. (Reuters/Joshua Roberts)

The opinion from Comey’s lawyers was not the only significant development in his case this week.

Hours earlier, the federal judge assigned to his case, Judge Michael Nachmanoff, denied the Justice Department’s request to limit Comey’s access to “protected” investigative materials used by prosecutors in the criminal case.

Nachmanoff said in an order that the government was obligated to share with Comey and his lawyers the documents discovered in the case, including those designated as “protected.”

Blocking Comey’s access to those documents would “unnecessarily hinder and delay” his ability to prepare his criminal case, he said.

“Protective orders addressing the confidentiality and privacy interests of others should not trump a defendant’s right to a fair trial,” Nachmanoff added.

Furthermore, he added, the government’s proposed ordinance “does not sufficiently define what information constitutes ‘protected material,’ making it too broad.”

The order resolves, for now, one of several public skirmishes that erupted in the days after Comey was indicted last month in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia on one count of allegedly making a false statement to Congress during a 2020 Senate hearing, and one count of obstruction related to the same event.

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The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, Virginia, where James Comey was indicted. (Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)

The most recent question was whether Comey, the former FBI director who was fired by Trump during his first term in the White House in 2017, should have access to certain documents discovered in his criminal case.

Halligan asked the judge to restrict his access to the investigative documents, citing their sensitive nature and concern that they remain in the hands of the defendants.

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She argued that the action sets a long-standing precedent in the Eastern District of Virginia — the Alexandria-based federal court where many national security and intelligence cases are tried — calling it “common practice.”

Comey’s lawyers filed their objection almost immediately.

They argued that Comey is a Virginia-licensed attorney who is himself “licensed to practice law in the Eastern District of Virginia” and who has previously been “entrusted with some of the most sensitive and guarded information in the country,” including during the Bush administration, when he was deputy attorney general and director of the FBI — a role he held for nearly four years before Trump fired him during his first term in office. White House.

“To now assert that he cannot be trusted to obtain advance information in his case contradicts his long career of distinguished government service at the highest levels,” his lawyers said.