DOJ’s own court reporter busts Trump-picked attorney’s timeline on bungled Comey indictment
CROPPED FILE PHOTO: Lawyers for former U.S. President Donald Trump; James Trusty, Lindsey Halligan and John Rowley, depart the U.S. Justice Department after meeting with Justice Department officials over the Trump Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, after Trump's lawyers last month sent the department a letter asking for a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, in Washington, U.S. June 5, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah Lynch/File Photo
An email from the government’s own court reporter appears to muddy the Justice Department’s claim that a full grand jury reviewed the final indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, Lawfare’s Roger Parloff reports.
The Justice Depart on Thursday did “a complete reversal on its position about whether the full grand jury in the Comey criminal case reviewed the indictment before it was handed up to a federal judge in September,” NBC News reports.
Lindsey Halligan, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was hand-picked by President Donald Trump to present the case against Comey.
On Wednesday, Halligan “testified … that when jurors voted to indict Comey on two of the three counts submitted in the original indictment, the full grand jury hadn’t reviewed a final revised document showing the two counts the former FBI director was charged with,” according to NBC News.
Halligan told the court only the jury foreperson and an additional grand juror saw the final indictment.
“Assistant U.S. Attorney Tyler Lemons, who is leading the prosecution of Comey, also said the full grand jury hadn’t reviewed the final indictment,” NBC News reports.
Thursday, the Department of Justice walked back that claim.
“[I]n a court filing Thursday … federal prosecutors said the full grand jury did review the final indictment,” NBC News reports. "In doing so, the Justice Department disputed the argument by Comey’s defense team that the indictment was invalid because of the missteps acknowledged in court Wednesday.”
Lawfare’s Parloff on Sunday posted an exhibit submitted by the government that appeared to contradict the prosecution’s claim.
The Monday, Nov. 17 email sent to Lemons and Halligan, among others, reads, “When [Halligan] was finished presenting her case, she and the court reporter left the room, as is standard procedure, to let the jury deliberate.”
"Nothing was missed or left out of the transcript," the court reporter wrote.
As Parloff explained Sunday, the email "shows that the full grand jury could not possibly have approved the operational 2-count indictment."
“The jury was ‘released’ when deliberations ended," Parloff wrote on X.
Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko seized on the report, calling the government's prosecution of Comey a “rushed, politically charged indictment.”
“This isn’t ‘procedural confusion,’” Parkhomenko wrote in a tweet. “This is what it looks like when a rushed, politically charged indictment falls apart the second sunlight hits it. They didn’t just fumble the timeline they indicted after the jury had gone home. You can’t make this stuff up.”
