Will the Trump DOJ's case against Comey even make it to trial? - The 11th Hour - MSNBC

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Former FBI director James Comey officially pleaded not guilty in federal court on Wednesday. But many outside observers say the case might not even make it to trial. Liz Oyer, Paul Rieckoff, Dave Weigel, and Joel Payne join Stephanie Ruhle for The 11th Hour Nightcap. - Aired on 10/08/2025.

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1. It will be dismissed with prejudice

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. 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.”