Just over a month ago, Trump U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan obtained an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey in the Alexandria Division of the Eastern District of Virginia. This area is far more Democrat than Republican, and the grand jurors, who refused to indict Comey for perjury, were not a rubber stamp.
Comey faces charges of making false statements and obstructing Congress. Comey has moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing that Halligan’s appointment is unlawful. He also wants the indictment dismissed on the grounds of vindictive prosecution. According to Comey, he is only facing charges because of President Trump’s anti-Comey animus. Comey portrays himself as a noble former public servant who was merely expressing his First Amendment rights.
Comey’s motion to dismiss gave Halligan the opening to make public the overwhelming evidence of guilt against him. She did so through her response, filing exhibits containing handwritten notes that Comey had written to himself and his dear friend, Professor Daniel Richman of Columbia Law School, then a special government employee. Halligan also produced emails from Comey’s Gmail account that used the alias Reinhold Niebuhr.
Most crucially, Comey’s written statements make clear that he was collaborating with Richman to leak stories to New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt. The exhibits even reveal Richman’s pseudonym, Michael Garcia. Comey had denied this conduct in sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
When the indictment came down, critics such as leftist MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance scoffed at it. Halligan, these critics claimed, had no experience and was in over her head. Career prosecutors had refused to pursue an indictment, and anti-Trump forces within the Southern District of Virginia began shamefully leaking to the media. This insubordination led to the justifiable firing of several prosecutors.
Halligan, however, has proved these critics wrong. She backed up the charges with evidence that far surpasses what is necessary to survive a motion to dismiss. There is no guarantee what Biden Judge Michael Nachmanoff or the leftist-dominated Fourth Circuit will do, but the constitutionalist Supreme Court majority will almost certainly not view favorably a partisan dismissal of an indictment when the evidence is this overwhelming.
Halligan is only part of an all-star team, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Working with legendary Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, Patel and Bongino found the evidence that served as the basis for the indictment. The evidence was stuffed in FBI burn bags in hidden storage rooms, and we never would have seen it had President Trump not prevailed on that glorious day in November 2024.
To thwart Comey’s challenge of the lawfulness of Halligan’s appointment, Bondi filed a motion noting the appointment of Halligan as a special attorney as of Sept. 22, making the appointment consistent with the time of the indictment. Bondi also attested that she had ratified Halligan’s actions relating to the grand jury. This precaution should not be necessary, as Halligan’s appointment was lawful. Bondi and Blanche are acting prudently, however, given the radical inferior court judges who will decide these motions.
The Comey indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia is just an appetizer. Southern District of Florida U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones has empaneled a grand jury to begin in January. Such a grand jury could investigate the shameful events that occurred during Operation Crossfire Hurricane, the republic-devastating attempt to overturn the 2016 election by falsely portraying Trump as a Russian asset, and the other republic-ending Democrat lawfare against President Trump, his aides, and his allies. Grand jury investigations are confidential, so we cannot know what will occur in January. But a grand jury should hold accountable Comey and other lawfare perpetrators for a conspiracy against the rights of Trump and many others pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 241.
One fear that we need not have concerns about is grand jury nullification. D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has been doing an extraordinary job of cleaning up that crime-infested dump, but her efforts are much harder because Democrat-dominated grand juries will not even indict defendants who have assaulted federal law enforcement. The Southern District of Florida has much more reasonable grand and petit jurors.
Our legal system is not like a television show where everything is solved in an hour or two. These cases will take time, especially if the government has to appeal dismissals by radical leftist judges. Thanks to the exemplary leadership of the quartet of Bondi, Blanche, Patel, and Bongino, plus exceptional U.S. attorneys such as Halligan, Reding Quiñones, and Pirro, justice is definitely coming. And Grassley — a workhorse, not a show horse — will continue to play his outsized role.
Mike Davis is the founder and president of the Article III Project.
