DOJ Appeals Dismissal of Cases Against James Comey and Letitia James

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday appealed the dismissal of the cases against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey after the prosecutions against those figures were quashed after U.S. District Court Judge Cameron Currie ruled last month that the attorney chosen by the president's administration Donald Trump to head the office charged with prosecuting them, Lindsey Halligan, had been unlawfully appointed.

The appeals by the DOJ come after weeks of unsuccessful efforts by prosecutors to revive the cases through other avenues. Two federal grand juries, in separate Virginia courts, declined to re-indict James, and a key figure in the Comey prosecution successfully blocked prosecutors from accessing his emails and data, which were critical to the charges facing the former FBI director.

Court documents filed this week further revealed that federal prosecutors tried to convince a grand jury to add a third felony charge to the second failed attempt to indict James last week, but failed. Both the former FBI director and the New York attorney general have repeatedly denied wrongdoing and have even gone so far as to call the charges against them a selective and vindictive prosecution driven by Trump.

The Trump administration last week submitted Halligan's formal nomination to the Senate Judiciary Committee without further publicity. While the upper chamber's approval would make his tenure as the top district attorney permanent, Democratic senators from Virginia expressed skepticism about his suitability.