Trump DOJ Cracks and Admits Defeat in Open Court

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2:34James Comey:The Department of Justice just effectively admitted that they cannot legitimately, constitutionally, indict James Comey and Letitia James. One, the former FBI director, the other, the current New York attorney general. They can't do it. So they got to revive, resurrect, salvage illegal indictments obtained by the now disgraced and resigned Lindsey Halligan in an appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. In a new brief, they've effectively conceded, we can't get them indicted legitimately. Please help us out and bring back to life the old illegal indictments. Oh, yes, I'm covering it here on Midas Touch Network and Legal AF.

3:18James Comey:I'm Michael Popak. There is a lot of pressure on Pam Bondi and her weaponization committee that she formed a year ago. That used to be headed by a guy named Ed Martin, who's already been fired in the last couple of weeks, to go back after all of the political critics and opponents of Donald Trump. First two on the list, Letitia James, New York Attorney General, who got a$450 million fraud. fraud, a judgment against Donald Trump and his family and former FBI director James Comey. The problem is they've met with opposition and been blocked by federal judges and even grand juries. And so they're left with, what do we do?

4:01James Comey:So this new brief that just got filed, 60 pages of it, completely ignores recent case law from another circuit, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals of Adelina Habba, in which they did this full analysis and said at the end, she was illegally appointed. She was illegally appointed by Donald Trump and by Pam Bondi, and she needs to go. Finally, she resigned. Same thing happened to Lindsey Halligan. A federal judge, Judge Curry, who was appointed to that position to handle the Lindsey Halligan issue about whether she was illegally appointed by the head of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the very court we're in front of now.

4:40James Comey:she ruled after a hearing and reviewing everything that lindsey halligan was illegally appointed under section 546 of the vacancy reform act which effectively says that you have to go through the president has to go through the senate to get a permanent u.s attorney if he can't do that or he runs out of time he and his department of justice get one pick for 120 days and after that is over That's it. The district judges pick the interim U.S. attorney. Well, they didn't do that. They tried to do a successive number of U.S. attorneys. Lindsey Halligan was the second interim U.S. attorney, which is one too many, as Judge Curry ruled.

5:22James Comey:Now, she ruled on that back in November. They finally got around to appealing it. But in the interim, they've tried and failed this weaponization committee. they've tried and failed to obtain indictments against James Comey and Letitia James. Two times more, they went after Letitia James in a grand jury. It was so bad and so embarrassing for the Department of Justice that one of the grand juries not only rejected the indictment, but they wanted to announce in open court in the public that they were renouncing the indictment. In other words, they returned their no true bill of indictment in public.

6:01James Comey:The Department of Justice was so embarrassed at the time, this is back in December, that they asked the federal judge to seal the, and hide it from the public, seal the no true bill. And the judge says, I don't know exactly why, although I could speculate why the grand jury wants to send this message, but they did it in public and I'm not sealing anything. And so for a total of three times, they've been unable to indict Letitia James for mortgage fraud because she bought a house in Virginia, a small single family house for$118 ,000. And they think she saved 50 bucks on her mortgage a month. And that's the reason the attorney general of New York committed mortgage fraud or lied to a financial institution.

6:47James Comey:Yeah, nobody's buying that. First among them, grand juries. So they've been blocked. In the James Comey case, they've been blocked by a federal judge because they're out of time. See, the reason Lindsey Halligan had a rush with no experience to indict James Comey is that when she got the job, when she was magically appointed the insta-prosecutor by Donald Trump, she only had 17 days left on the clock. before the five-year statute of limitations on a lying to Congress, a 1001 charge, would expire. So she hurried up and she did a lot of illegal things, like an illegal search and seizure of records and communications between James Comey and his lawyer, Daniel Richman.

7:31James Comey:That got brought to the attention of a judge, Judge Colarchitelli, and she ruled, if you're going to reindict, and I'm not sure how you do that with the time limit, You can't use the Richmond files unless you get a proper subpoena and you can't use what you've already done. That ruling was a month ago. There's no reporting that they've tried to go back in front of the grand jury. The best they can hope for is to try to argue that it was a clerical error and they get under a rule, a certain rule of criminal procedure, they get the opportunity within 60 days to fix an indictment where there's effectively a technical or clerical error.

8:07James Comey:But there's no technical and clerical error. They had an illegally appointed U.S. attorney, and the judge ruled that everything she did was illegal, including those indictments. And they haven't tried to go back and get another indictment. Now we fast forward to the admission they can't get legitimate indictments. Otherwise, you don't file this Fourth Amendment appeal. You only do that as a last resort after you've tried and failed to get indictments through a prosecutor not named Lindsey Halligan. They just can't do it. And this is putting a lot of pressure on Pam Bondi. She's about to appear this week at the Oversight Committee hearings on the Department of Justice in the House and the Judiciary Committee.

8:46James Comey:And trust me, the Jamie Raskins of the world, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, are salivating about taking on Pam Bondi. And it doesn't help them that Lindsey Halligan resigned in disgrace three weeks ago after two separate judges said she's illegitimate as the U.S. attorney and she needs to go. In fact, one judge went as far, Judge Novak, to say that she is impersonating and masquerading as a U.S. attorney and should be sanctioned.

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10:20James Comey:Which brings us back to the Weaponization Committee. See, there's a lot of pressure on the Weaponization Committee right now. If you remember back in February 5, there was a day one memo, which I'll put up on Substack, from Pam Bondi establishing the Weaponization Committee, the Weaponization Working Group, in which she's trying to restore the integrity. I'm going to choke on this. restore the integrity and credibility of the Department of Justice. Side note, this is the most corrupt Department of Justice in our history, led by Pam Bondi. So it's laughable. It's laugh out loudable that she writes all of this.

10:56James Comey:And then she's talking about her whole list in the back, examining Jack Smith, examining Letitia James, examining the investigative techniques for the Jan 6th insurrectionists, all who have been pardoned, going after Catholic groups and the rest. Doesn't mention James Comey, but it's implicit. So what I went through with a lot of care in the 60-page brief that was filed by Henry Whitaker on behalf of the Department of Justice, who used to be the Solicitor General in Florida and used to be a Clarence Thomas Supreme Court law clerk, real federalist is any reference to the fact they've lost on this very issue in front of another appellate court the third circuit court of appeals i'm looking page after page after page i see nothing not even a footnote okay i'm an appellate advocate when you have a bad case against you you can't use magical thinking and hope you can make it go away like etch a sketch oh that's the department of justice at this point if they get a bad case against them they just act like it didn't happen.

12:05James Comey:They just ignore it and hope nobody catches it. That's why we have an adversarial process. And now the lawyers for James Comey and Letitia James are going to point out the proper jurisprudence framework established by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on this very issue that led to Alina Hobba being trashed. So nowhere there's any reference to that. And their biggest argument is Virginia wouldn't confirm Lindsay Halligan. First of all, Lindsay Halligan quit in disgrace two weeks ago. So there goes the argument that she couldn't get confirmed through the Senate or the Senate was blocking her illegally.

12:40James Comey:Donald Trump has this whole thing about blue slips. Let me do a quick teach out on blue slips. The senators of each state have to return their blue slip at approval, both of them. So it has to be two blue slips in the folder for a candidate that needs to be confirmed, a federal officer that needs to be confirmed by the Senate to progress to the confirmation process. Otherwise, it gets blocked by senatorial tradition by the blue slips. If only one, let's say there's a Republican and Democrat and there's a MAGA candidate. The Republican turns in the blue slip, but the Democrat doesn't. Nope, sorry.

13:19James Comey:You gotta have blue slip, blue slip. Virginia, two Democrat, Democratic senators. New Jersey, two Democratic senators. They did not return their blue slips, and they effectively blocked Alina Habba in Jersey and Lindsey Halligan in Virginia. Drove Donald Trump crazy. Going after John Thune, the Senate majority leader. Get rid of the blue slips. Blue slips are tearing us apart. And, of course, they're worried that when Donald Trump's out and a Democrat's in, they don't want to get rid of the blue slips. You know, 200 years of Senate tradition. So that's not happening. but they argue, well, the Senate's blocking the president's pick.

13:58James Comey:Yeah, that's the advice and consent of the Senate under the appointment clause. So the big takeaway for me is they're effectively throwing in the towel and trying to get new indictments against James Comey or even Letitia James. I think they think they can't obtain it because the indictments for Letitia James have to happen in Norfolk, Virginia. And I don't think they can get it in Norfolk based on what's happening. And for the FBI director, they're out of time. But you see the pressure on Bondi to make good on the weaponization committee. They got certain people indicted already. You've got John Bolton, former UN ambassador, former national security director.

14:44He's been indicted by a legitimate prosecutor.

14:48James Comey:But the other ones in Florida, John Brennan, former head of the CIA, a number of people in the intelligence community, Barack Obama, no indictment. Adam Schiff, senator from California, mortgage fraud, no indictment. Lisa Cook on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Dr. Lisa Cook for mortgage fraud, no indictment. She's had a year for Donald Trump. That's a lifetime. I'll continue to follow it all right here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Thanks for being here. Join me for the Intersection podcast Tuesday nights on the Midas Touch Network. Thank you for your support. It's one of the top new podcasts out there, and it's all because of you.

15:33James Comey:So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.

15:37Michael Popok:Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call. Wait for it. Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

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