Judge Cites ‘Profound Investigative Missteps’ in Court Case Against James Comey

WASHINGTON — Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has been granted access to all grand jury materials in his case after a federal judge found “profound investigative missteps” that could result in the dismissal of Comey’s indictment.

Eastern District of Virginia Federal Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick wrote Monday that issues with evidence, testimony, and statements to the grand jury outweigh the usual heavily guarded secrecy of proceedings.

The government filed a motion for an emergency stay just hours after the order was issued.

In the 24-page order, Fitzpatrick delivered a scathing account of the government’s mishandling and possibly illegal access to evidence presented to grand jurors, including a potential Fourth Amendment violation.

Additionally, the single person to testify before the grand jury was an FBI agent who knew that the evidence he reviewed may have been attorney-client privileged or confidential information, according to the order.

Fitzpatrick also found that the entirety of the grand jury proceedings was not provided to the court, and that two statements to jurors by interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan “could reasonably form the basis for the defense to challenge whether the grand jury proceedings were infected with constitutional error.”

“(A)s the Court has found, these materials are essential if Mr. Comey is to fully and fairly defend himself in the face of the irregularities that have characterized this investigation from its inception,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

Fitzpatrick concluded, “The record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding.”

The order stemmed from Comey’s motion to access the grand jury proceedings.

District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff, a President Joe Biden appointee who is overseeing the Comey case, ordered the materials to be turned over, but the process was halted when the government challenged the order.

Nachmanoff then remanded the case to Fitzpatrick, who in 2022 was selected on merit by a panel of U.S. District judges in the Eastern District of Virginia to hold the magistrate position for eight years.

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted Comey in September on one charge of making false statements to Congress during testimony in 2020 and another of obstructing a proceeding of Congress.

Prosecutors had sought an additional charge of making false statements, but the grand jury returned only the two charges.

Trump, who publicly urged U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey, ousted the then-U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik S. Siebert.

Trump replaced the office’s top prosecutor with former personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan, who swiftly obtained an indictment.

Comey pleaded not guilty on Oct. 8.

Comey’s legal team is simultaneously fighting Halligan’s appointment as unlawful.

by Ashley Murray, Virginia Mercury

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