Free Republic

On Wednesday, US District Court Judge Michael Nachmanoff grilled interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan in his courtroom during a hearing on disgraced former FBI Director James Comey’s attempts to dismiss his case for vindictive prosecution. While the hearing was specifically about the vindictive prosecution, Judge Nachmanoff, towards the end of the hearing, found that Halligan had signed the two-count indictment without first presenting it to the grand jury. This left the case “hanging by a thread,” as reported by Politico: The Trump administration’s criminal prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey appeared to be in serious jeopardy Wednesday as the...

The Justice Department on Wednesday admitted that the operative indictment against former FBI Director James Comey was never presented to the full grand jury — a procedural error defense attorneys say should bar the prosecution. The admission came under sharp questioning from U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, after several judges overseeing parts of the case had raised concerns about the government’s presentation and an apparent discrepancy in the grand jury record. Instead of presenting a new indictment to the full panel after it rejected one of the counts, interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan gave the grand jury’s foreperson an updated...

A federal judge ordered prosecutors Monday to turn over secret grand jury records in the case against former FBI Director James Comey to his legal team Monday, calling out “a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that … potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding.”And one legal expert said the bombshell decision could spell disaster for the prosecution against Comey and potentially be a huge embarrassment for the whole Department of Justice.In a 24-page ruling, US Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick accused the feds of flouting attorney-client privilege to secure an indictment of President Trump’s longtime nemesis, ripped...

September 25, 2025

The criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey — ordered up by President Donald Trump as he seeks to punish one of his oldest adversaries — will be resolved by the newest judge in the federal court where Comey was charged. U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, a 2021 appointee of President Joe Biden, was randomly assigned Thursday evening to the Comey case, which quickly took on national urgency over questions about Trump’s deployment of federal prosecutorial power to exact revenge

Two associates of Rudy Giuliani made their initial appearance before a federal judge on Thursday, less than 24 hours after they were arrested on campaign finance violations while trying to board an international flight with one-way tickets at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington D.C. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman appeared in federal court in Alexandria, Va. to face a four-count indictment alleging that they, along with two other co-defendants, conspired to violate a ban on foreign donations and contributions in connection with federal and state elections. The two men remained mostly silent during their appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge...