A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Former FBI Director James Comey was back in federal court yesterday.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Yeah. Comey faces false statements and obstruction charges tied to congressional testimony he gave in 2020. But the Trump Justice Department's case against him is running into core legal challenges that could leave it on shaky ground.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us. Ryan, you were there for this hearing yesterday, where there was a bit of legal drama happening.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: There sure was. There was quite a bit of it, and really, the big news to come out of the hearing revolves around the indictment in this case. The new acting U.S. attorney, Lindsey Halligan, presented this case to a grand jury. She did so at the end of September. And Halligan initially sought three counts against Comey, but the grand jury rejected one of those. So in the end, Comey was indicted on two counts - the ones that were mentioned at the top - false statements and obstruction.
But there have been questions about what exactly happened in the grand jury process. And in a remarkable exchange in court yesterday, prosecutors told the judge that the full grand jury never reviewed the final indictment against Comey. Halligan herself was questioned by the judge. She acknowledged that only the foreperson and one other grand juror saw it. The government described this as little more than a paperwork error. Comey's attorney disagreed. He said this means there is no indictment and said that this is grounds to have this case dismissed.
MARTÍNEZ: So a full grand jury not seeing a final indictment. That sounds like a serious issue.
LUCAS: Well, look. I spoke with a couple of former federal prosecutors yesterday who said this is really a self-inflicted wound by the government. They said that this is prosecutor 101-level stuff, and it just shouldn't happen. The judge certainly sounded concerned. This raises questions about the validity of the indictment itself. Last night, the government filed another brief at the judge's request on this very issue, and prosecutors argued again that everything here was above board; it's all proper. The judge didn't say yesterday what he intends to do, but this clearly is not a positive development for the government.
And it's not even the first time this week that there have been concerns raised about this investigation and the grand jury process itself. Just a couple of days ago, a magistrate judge took the unusual step of ordering the government to turn over all grand jury materials to Comey's defense team. That judge said there's a pattern of what he called profound investigative missteps in this case, and that those raise the prospect of prosecutorial misconduct that may have tainted the whole grand jury process. Now the government is pushing back on the magistrate judge's findings and says that they shouldn't have to turn over these grand jury materials.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, I'm sure there are some next steps left.
LUCAS: That's right. Remarkably, that - you know, there are all of these various legal challenges, but the amazing thing is that yesterday's hearing was actually centered on a different legal challenge that Comey is making. And that's that this case against him is one of vindictive prosecution - that Trump here is using the Justice Department to go after a high-profile critic. Comey's attorney, Michael Dreeben, pointed to a social media post by President Trump just days before Comey was indicted, demanding that the Justice Department prosecute him. Dreeben told the judge that the record here is, quote-unquote, "crystal clear." The Justice Department, for its part, says, no, Halligan is not a puppet. Prosecutors say she acted independently. It is worth remembering, though, that Halligan is a former White House aide with no prosecutorial experience who was appointed days before she secured this indictment.
Now, the judge didn't rule from the bench yesterday, so we are waiting for a ruling on the vindictive prosecution question and on a separate motion challenging the legality of Halligan's appointment. So - look, there are a number of serious legal challenges that the government is going to have to overcome before this case gets to trial.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Ryan Lucas. Thanks, Ryan.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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