A magistrate judge overseeing grand jury material related to the appointment of Lindsey Halligan as interim U.S.Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia says in a "scathing" rebuke that the government must hand over all grand jury materials by 3 p.m. Monday to the defense team of former FBI Director James Comey, reports MS NOW's legal affairs reporter Fallon Gallagher.

The materials include audio of the grand jury proceedings presented Halligan presented by herself.

Gallagher reports that after reviewing all the evidence and material, the judge issued a "scathing opinion" expressing "serious concerns."

"... Basically he's saying there's possible misconduct and negligence here," Gallagher reports.

"And he goes on to surmise that this may even be enough for the Comey defense team to get this case dismissed," Gallagher says.

She explains that the defense team will be able to review and incorporate the evidence into their case with a series of motions to get the case dismissed.

Halligan, a Trump appointee with no prior prosecutorial experience, brought charges against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Comey is charged with making a false statement to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding while James is charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.

Attorneys for both Comey and James are arguing that Halligan's appointment was illegal, meaning she lacked the authority to present their cases to a grand jury and, therefore, the indictments are invalid.

One of the motions to dismiss was combined with James' case involving the "unlawful appointment" of Halligan as U.S. Attorney, Gallagher reports.

"As far as that one, they argued that one last week," Gallagher says, and she says to "expect a ruling maybe by this week."

The judge's orders Monday, Gallagher notes, are "pretty significant because, if you remember, Halligan is the only one to prosecute this to the grand jury. Hers is the only signature on that indictment, so if she is found ineligible to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, that could be enough to get his case dismissed in and of itself."

Gallagher also says the fact that the judge is ordering the grand jury materials to the defense team is highly unusual.

"This is very rare. This is a very rare thing that's happening and the judge acknowledges that in his opinion . . .there might be misconduct here and that is why he's handing the material over to the defense so they can see how they will use that to get the case dismissed," she says.

"The judge reviewed the materials. They will be docketed. Comey's defense will see it. One of the things we learned is that there may be a chunk of time when Halligan was alone with that grand jury and there's no transcript of what happened in that last chunk between the end of her presentation and when she actually secured that indictment, so it'll be interesting to see what the Comey team finds in these grand jury materials. My guess is that it's pretty serious if the judge is speaking as strongly as he is in this written order," Gallaher adds.

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