A federal pass judgement on on Nov. 24, 2025, disregarded the indictments in opposition to former FBI Director James B. Comey and New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James, blocking off the Division of Justice’s efforts to prosecute two of President Donald Trump’s perceived adversaries.
However U.S. District Pass judgement on Cameron McGowan Currie certified her dismissals, announcing she did so “without prejudice.”
What does that criminal time period imply?
Unaddressed fees
In her ruling, Currie concluded that the appointment of intervening time U.S. Legal professional Lindsey Halligan, who filed the instances in opposition to Comey and James, was once illegal. Currie wrote:
“Because Ms. Halligan had no lawful authority to present the indictment, I will grant Mr. Comey’s motion and dismiss the indictment without prejudice.”
She wrote the similar in regards to the case in opposition to James.
Currie’s “without prejudice” reference manner the dismissal didn’t deal with what criminal students like me name the deserves or substance of the underlying felony fees.
A “without prejudice” dismissal is legalese for “you can try again if you can fix the problems with your case.” Had the pass judgement on dominated that the dismissals have been “with prejudice,” that may have intended the federal government may now not have introduced the instances once more.
Right here’s what prosecutors would want to repair as a way to deliver instances in opposition to Comey and James once more.
Federal regulation supplies that every time a U.S. lawyer’s place is vacant, the lawyer common might appoint an intervening time U.S. lawyer for a duration of 120 days. On the finish of that duration, it’s as much as the federal judges of the district the place that place is vacant to nominate somebody to proceed in that position until and till the president nominates, and the Senate confirms, a U.S. lawyer throughout the commonplace appointments procedure.
New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James speaks out of doors U.S. District Court docket on Oct. 24, 2025, in Norfolk, Va.
AP Photograph/John Clark
The Trump management appointed Halligan’s predecessor, U.S. Legal professional Erik Siebert, in that intervening time position in January 2025. And when the 120 days from his appointment lapsed, the district judges of the Jap District of Virginia decided on him to proceed on in his intervening time position.
Currie discovered that once Siebert resigned after his reappointment, that didn’t empower the Trump management to nominate a brand new intervening time prosecutor. The facility nonetheless resided with the District Court docket judges. As a result of that, Halligan’s appointment and her efforts to safe the Comey and James indictments have been void.
The tip of the start
The Division of Justice can unquestionably enchantment those rulings and may get them reversed on enchantment, or it would refile them after a brand new U.S. lawyer is known as based on regulation.
It can be too overdue for the case in opposition to Comey, alternatively, for the reason that statute of obstacles on the ones fees has already run out. As Currie famous in her Comey ruling, whilst the statute of obstacles is most often suspended when a sound indictment has been filed, an invalid indictment, like the only in opposition to Comey, shouldn’t have the similar impact at the statute of obstacles.
That suggests the time has most likely run out at the claims in opposition to the previous FBI director.
If Currie’s rulings stand, the Justice Division can’t simply document the instances once more, with Halligan nonetheless on this position, until the Trump management follows the procedures set forth within the regulation for her correct appointment.
Whilst this isn’t the start of the top for those prosecutions, it’s, no less than, the top of the start.
