The Slow Death Facing The Comey Prosecution -- Joyce Vance

[erronis]

joycevance.substack.com/p/the-slow-death-facing-the-comey-prosecution

This morning at 10 a.m., former FBI Director Jim Comey was arraigned in federal court. As expected, he pled not guilty. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff set a trial for January 5. Comey’s defense lawyer, former Chicago U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald, told the court it was the honor of his life to represent Comey. Fitzgerald, who is not prone to unnecessary commentary, clearly understands the importance of the moment and the case.

Interestingly, the government doesn’t want a speedy trial. We’re “just getting our hands around” discovery, prosecutors tried to explain to the judge, telling him that the case is complicated. It isn’t. A false statements case is about as basic as they come. Prosecutors must prove the statement was made by the defendant, that it was false and the defendant knew it was false, and that it was material or important to the outcome of the government proceeding in which it was made. “This does not appear to me to be an overly complicated case,” Judge Nachmanoff told the prosecution team.

The prosecutors who are taking over the case from Trump’s never-before-prosecuted-a-case U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia were dropped in from the Eastern District of North Carolina, and it’s not clear they understood they had landed in the Eastern District of Virginia’s notorious “rocket docket.” As we’ve discussed, the Eastern District of Virginia fast-tracks its cases, but the new prosecution team wanted to put off turning over discovery, one of the first steps that gets a criminal prosecution underway, until mid-January. The Judge set the trial date before that. Welcome to Alexandria, Virginia.

Fitzgerald pointed out that prosecutors still hadn’t told him what false statement(s) his client was accused of making. When the prosecutors said they were trying to decide how to handle classified information, Fitzgerald commented that prosecutors usually have that sorted out before they indict. In any event, while Trump stripped Comey of his security clearance and Fitzgerald’s has lapsed, another lawyer on the defense team possesses one and can get to work. The Judge indicated that classified material shouldn’t delay the proceedings.

. . .

It seems obvious that the whole point of trump's little game is to file the charges and cause delays, not caring about the verdict, but playing to the courtier press and base.

[democratsruletheday]

1. He's a troll...

he knows GD well there won't be a conviction. He wanted him perp walked but it didn't happen. Comey will beat the rap IMO and nothing will come of it. Just more waste of taxpayer dollars so he can try and persecute another perceived enemy. YAWN.........

[dalton99a]

2. The tyrant wants to use the endless resources of the Justice Department to harass and bankrupt his enemies

The process causes people pain and suffering

[bronxiteforever]

3. The prosecutors who take over this case are going

to lose their license. I am sure TSF will be there for them.

Comey will own Lindsay Halligan’s life after this. Everything TSf touches dies, now watch these careers burn down.

[tanyev]

4. Yep, they want press conferences announcing investigations/charges.

Then they’ll run with accusations and conspiracy theories.

[Ray Bruns]

5. "Interestingly, the government doesn't want a speedy trial"

Because a trial and conviction were never the point.

[dalton99a]

6. +1. It's the process, not the outcome - the longer the torture, the better

[Mustellus]

7. Comey went first....

... cause Trump was hoping we'd throw him to the wolves for our grudges against him. But Comey would be a precident. And others we like more will follow. But Justice is Justice.. without preference.

[tinrobot]

8. File false charges and bleed the defendant dry with legal fees.

The longer the trial, the more it costs the defendant.

Thankfully, Comey has friends such as Fitzgerald who are probably working pro bono. But others are not as fortunate.

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

9. The whole thing is a Republican shitshow hosted by trump. They are not about law and order,

they are about ordering law to bend to their will.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. Comey's challenge of Lindsey Halligan is the latest bid to derail Trump's top prosecutors

Halligan was not validly appointed. The statute of limitations has run on Comey's so-called crimes and if Halligan is disqualified, then the case against Comey goes away

On the one hand you just want to scream that she has no experience as a prosecutor, on the other hand leading a position with the descriptor "Trump's top" pretty much means the person is inexperienced and incompetent, and probably doesn't legally hold the position.

You win this round CNN.

— Jon (@jonvw4.bsky.social) 2025-10-09T13:57:08.910Z

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/09/politics/trump-halligan-doj-appointment-challenged-comey

Before FBI Director James Comey heads to trial in January over charges of lying to Congress, his team plans to put the prosecutors — and specifically President Donald Trump’s handpicked interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan — on the defensive.

Comey’s strategy, as outlined in court on Wednesday, will focus on attacking Halligan’s authority as the US Attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia as part of efforts to convince the court to dismiss the charges against him.

The coming challenge to remove Halligan from the case is just one in a wave of recent criminal defense lawyers around the country calling into question Trump’s use of top prosecutors who haven’t been confirmed by the Senate. Some of those challenges have been successful.

Halligan may make the Comey case especially vulnerable, in that she was the only prosecutor to take the indictment through a grand jury, and was sworn in by the administration to lead her office just days before......

Ed Whelan, a conservative legal commenter, has been writing in the National Review about why he thinks Halligan, who signed off on Comey’s indictment, doesn’t have prosecutorial authority.

“It seems highly doubtful that Lindsey Halligan has been validly appointed as United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia,” Whelan wrote in the National Review recently. “If her appointment is invalid, so is her indictment of Comey.”