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This decision marks an even deeper problem inside the system. Halligan is now the fourth Trump-aligned U.S. attorney found to have been installed without proper authority. Critics say the pattern is not an accident — it’s part of a broader struggle where courts, bureaucrats, and political operators fight over who gets to bring charges, when, and against whom.
Comey and Letitia James immediately moved to kick Halligan off their cases, arguing that she was the only prosecutor who sought the indictments. If her appointment was invalid, the grand jury actions were invalid too. Their attorneys insisted that basic due process demanded the charges be thrown out before reaching trial.
Their fight began after Erik Siebert, the previous U.S. attorney, resigned under pressure. Trump wanted movement on the Comey investigation — the statute of limitations was slipping away, and Comey’s 2020 congressional testimony had been under renewed scrutiny. With days left on the clock, the pressure campaign set the stage for the missteps that followed.
When Trump pushed Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action and floated Lindsey Halligan as the replacement, Bondi moved quickly. But rushing the swap is what ultimately led to the collapse of the cases. The legal problem was rooted in Siebert’s service time. His 120-day interim term began Jan. 21 and expired May 21. Judges in the district had unanimously voted to keep him in place until the Senate confirmed Trump’s nominee, as allowed under federal law.
But according to Comey’s lawyer and Letitia James’ attorney, the government’s workaround simply didn’t follow the statute — and the judge agreed.
Abbe Lowell, representing James, warned that the administration’s argument would blow a hole through the Constitution’s appointment checks and balances. He said it would create a “statutory contradiction” by giving administrations power to repeatedly install interim prosecutors “over and over again,” erasing the judiciary’s oversight entirely.
Comey’s lawyer, Ephraim McDowell, went even further, warning that the government’s logic meant it would “never have any reason to go through Senate confirmation again.” In other words, it would make the Senate irrelevant — something Democrats used to pretend they cared deeply about.
The judge’s ruling now raises politically explosive questions. Did the administration deliberately bypass Senate oversight to control politically sensitive prosecutions? Were these flawed appointments part of a larger pattern to manipulate long-running investigations? And will the Department of Justice dare to bring back these explosive cases with someone legally qualified?
For now, the charges against Comey and Letitia James are erased — but the controversy around them just became much bigger.
