Transcription
If I could just get your reaction to the James Comey, Leticia James cases being dropped today, uh, back in Washington. James Comey put out a video. He said, "This matters most because a message has to be sent. The president of the United States could not use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies." Your reaction to the cases being dropped into that specific investigation?
"Sure. We'll be taking all available legal action, including an immediate appeal to hold Leticia James and James Comey accountable for their unlawful conduct."
What is your reaction to his statement?
"I'm going to keep going on this. I'm not, you know, I'm not, I'm not worried about someone who has been charged with a very serious crime. His alleged actions were a betrayal of public trust."
You're watching the Legal Breakdown. Glenn, that was a clip of Pam Bondi in the aftermath of having the James Comey and Leticia James cases struck down, dismissed in court, basically vowing to continue plowing ahead and trying to make this happen. So, first and foremost, what are the legitimate legal avenues they have to be able to overturn this dismissal?
Yeah, they are undeterred by their own failure. And if they want to keep plowing forward, Brian, I say have at it. I'm going to get the popcorn and I'm going to watch them continue to go down in flames. Here's why I say that. First of all, Judge Curry dismissed both indictments against James Comey and against Leticia James. Why? Because Lindseay Halligan was unlawfully appointed. US Attorney Judge Curry said, you know, basically it's like having a private citizen walk in off the street, enter a grand jury, and try to indict somebody. You can't do it. It's not lawful.
So, right now, there are no cases pending against James Comey and Leticia James. However, the judge dismissed them without prejudice. What does that mean? It means in theory the prosecutors, once you actually get a legitimately appointed federal prosecutor to go into the grand jury, they can try again. They can try to indict Leticia James. Um, they can try to indict James Comey, but the, the two defendants are in very different situations.
So Leticia James is alleged to have engaged in mortgage fraud less than 5 years ago. So her case is still within the time frame, the statute of limitations, because between the time of the crime and the time the grand jury returns an indictment, it has to be less than 5 years. And Leticia James' case is still within that five-year statute of limitations. James Comey's isn't. James Comey now, we know based on Judge Curry's ruling, has never been lawfully indicted. And guess what? We are well beyond the five-year statute of limitations.
So, because Judge Curry dismissed the Comey case also without prejudice, that means they can try to walk back into the grand jury with a lawfully appointed prosecutor and secure an indictment again. But Brian, the minute that case shows up in court, James Comey will file a motion to dismiss because it's beyond the statute of limitations. And that is likely to be a winning motion. So, the only way they're going to be able to succeed in getting the Comey case back on track is to file an appeal. Hope that the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reverses Judge Curry. I have spent a lot of time today reading Judge Curry's 29-page opinion. Guess what? The Court of Appeals is not going to overturn that opinion. It is rock solid on the facts and the law and the Constitution. There's no wiggle room.
And Brian, let me just add, this issue has been resolved by multiple federal judges. A judge in New Jersey ruled the same way regarding Elena Haba's illegal appointment. A judge in California ruled the same way regarding Trump flunky Billy's unlawful appointment. This is not a forward-leaning legal opinion. This is heartland rule of law stuff. So, the only thing they can hope is that somehow Trump can convince the Supreme Court to take this case up. Now, what the Supreme Court will do is anybody's guess. They seem forever determined to let Donald Trump expand his presidential power, even often contrary to the express language of the Constitution. I still, I'm going to go out on a limb here, Brian, against my better judgment, and I'm gonna say, listen, there's there's just no reason for the Supreme Court to accept for review a case where the US attorney was unlawfully appointed. It's kind of cut and dry. It's black and white. There's no real presidential power issue at stake, at least on this narrow issue. So, you know, I think the the likelihood that the James Comey prosecution ever goes anywhere is slim to none, and slim is fading fast.
But let's remember, if one or both of these cases do manage to make their way back into court, you know what? We haven't yet litigated vindictive prosecution, selective prosecution, abuse of the grand jury based on other information we have learned about how Lindseay Halligan abused the grand jury. So, I don't think either of these cases will ever see the light of day in front of a jury, even if they do manage to revive those indictments somehow.
And that's exactly what I was going to discuss with you. This idea that even if the prosecutor here wasn't improperly appointed, they would still have to contend with the monumental task of getting of getting any jury or judge to agree with them that this case was not selectively uh prosecuted or vindictively prosecuted. And even Donald Trump has undermined his own case by constantly tweeting and posting about how these people have to be prosecuted until lo and behold, five minutes later, a prosecution's brought against them. The only thing they will succeed in doing if they manage to rebring these indictments and jumpstart these cases is expose themselves as the incompetence that they are because new motions to dismiss will be granted and these cases will again be thrown out of court. Now again, we can go through the process of appealing again. Listen, these cases will never see 12 people sitting in a wooden box deciding guilt or innocence of James Comey and Leticia James.
And just a quick note for folks who are watching right now, if you're not yet subscribed to both of our channels, please make sure to subscribe. This way you can stay on top of all the latest legal news as it continues to break. The links to both of our channels are in the post description of this video. You know, we may look at this and say, "Okay, Lindseay Halligan was improperly appointed. No problem. We'll just get another prosecutor in there. That person will pick up exactly where Halagan left off and this thing will be as good as gold." And so what do you say to those people who, who you know, probably folks around Trump's orbit who say, you know, that this is going to be a glide path forward? It won't. They won't be as good as gold if these cases are rebrought. They'll be as good as because the evidence we've seen, the evidence that they've included in these indictments. These cases are not straight-faced prosecutions.
And look, not all vindictive prosecutions are alike. I read the Comey indictment. I read the Leticia James indictment. And I read the John Bolton indictment. The John Bolton indictment was brought by career federal prosecutors at the Maryland US Attorney's Office. And I would add parenthetically, Brian, people may remember the Maryland US Attorney's Office is the one that brought Spiro Agnew down. So they don't necessarily flinch, at least historically, in the face of politically fraught and, and, you know, highly politically charged prosecutions. But when I read the Bolton indictment, it reads like a traditional, you know, classified information um indictment where somebody has probably unlawfully retained and disseminated classified information. So, it's still vindictive in the sense that it wasn't brought by the Biden administration and it was by the Trump administration. Why? Because Trump believes that John Bolton is one of his avowed enemies. So, I, but that doesn't mean it's a successful vindictive prosecution defense because unlike Comey and Leticia James, who, when you read the indictments, it doesn't even look like they have the goods to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. It looks like they probably do have the goods on Bolton, even though the, the Biden administration decided there was perhaps not enough of an injury there because Bolton shared classified information with who? His wife and his daughter in the process of writing his book. So, um, not all vindictive prosecutions are created equal. But what I say is if they rebring these two cases, the evidence is still and they're still not going to successfully prosecute James or Comey.
I would imagine that there's also the issue of finding a prosecutor who can do this. I mean, the reason they had to bring Lindsay Hallagan in is expressly because her predecessor wasn't even willing to do this. That was Seabert, if I'm not mistaken. Is that correct? So, even Seabert wasn't willing to to bring about these prosecutions. That's why Lindsay Haligan had to be brought in. And now after seeing, you know, how much how much of a mess this has all caused, the likelihood that any prosecutor worth his or her salt is going to see this, recognize the risk to their own law license and say, "Yeah, sign me up for that," is going to be even lower in the aftermath of these cases getting uh getting dismissed.
I tend to agree with you, but do we seem to be suffering from a shortage of Trump flunkies?
Yeah. Well, look, you know, I mean, you, you, you tell me how many, how many, where did Lindsay Halligan have to pluck prosecutors out of because she wouldn't find any rank and file prosecutors willing to sign their name on these on these indictments?
That's a great question. Nobody in that office, the Eastern District of Virginia US Attorney's Office apparently would touch the case with a 10-foot pole, probably because they're ethical, honorable prosecutors who care about their license to practice law. They had to go all the way to North Carolina to find two people willing to put their law license on the line. A guy named uh Tyler Lemons and another guy named Gabe Diaz. And for the uh Leticia James prosecution, it was even worse. They had to go all the way out to Missouri to find some guy and drag [snorts] him in um to really a a potentially career-ending endeavor. Why? Because for a minute you get close to the power of the presidency and you're doing the the president's dirty bidding. I, I don't understand it. I don't think I ever worked with anybody in my decades as a prosecutor who would likely have gone on that, you know, legal suicide mission. But, you know, they, they scoured the country and they did find a couple of prosecutors last time. Maybe they'll find somebody else to now take the position of Lindseay Halligan.
You know what though? This is a world post Margutella Green even being in Trump's good graces. And so if you're looking for some indication that Donald Trump will throw you under the bus, run rough shot over you the moment you lose your political usefulness, I hope these prosecutors see that Trump's most loyal foot soldier, Margie Taylor Green, has come out publicly against him, publicly saying that he is not willing to deliver on exactly the things that he promises. And he wasn't willing to stick his neck out for her, instead throwing her under the bus the moment she became politically uh uh inconvenient for him. And this is a like this is a recurring theme in Trump world. He's done it to Kaylee Mciny, to McDaniel, to Gordon Sland, George Papadopoulos. The list goes on and on and on of people who he's thrown under the bus. People who not only were pro-Trump but dedicated their lives to him, put their law licenses in some instances on the line for him. Put their livelihood on the line for him. Put their freedom on the line for him. He's seen numerous people, including Michael Cohen, uh, go to prison on his behalf. And so, I hope the next person in line uh, who might be intrigued by proximity to power to Donald Trump can see that all relationships are transactional with him and they only go one way. And if everybody from Ron McDaniel to Michael Cohen to Gordon Sland, George Papadopoulos, Kaye Mcanini, and ultimately Marjorie Marjorie Taylor Green can see that reality, then I hope the next prosecutor can see it too. And that will dampen uh his or her eagerness to throw their lot in with a guy who really wouldn't lift a finger to help them if it didn't help him. You know, it seems like the only saving grace is that these lawyers who are willing to risk their law license for Donald Trump might have a second career as a mechanic because they become so familiar with the undercarriage of buses. Maybe they've got that going for them.
Yeah. And so, final question here, Glenn. Um, where do you see this process moving? And at what point will we get a definitive yes or no in terms of these uh vindictive or selective prosecutions actually working out?
You know, it's a great question. There's actually an argument to be made that they don't need to appeal the ruling in the Leticia James case because they can simply rebr. But they, if they want to try to rebring the charges, they have to bring an appeal and win an appeal in the Comey case. You know, I, I can't imagine that Donald Trump will say, "You know what? All of the odds are against us. The facts, the law, the Constitution, it's all against us. So, we're not going to um appeal the Comey dismissal." Very hard for me to conceive of Donald Trump saying that. Um, insatiable appetite for revenge that he has. I just don't think it's a winning proposition. And I do think that the court of appeals might be willing to expedite it so Comey doesn't have this, you know, vindictive prosecution hanging over his head any longer than he has to. So I, I suspect if there are appeals filed in the normal course of things, it can take months for those appeals to actually be resolved. So, you know, I think we are far from the endgame in either of these two cases.
Well, we will of course stay on top of everything as it continues to break. For those who are watching right now, if you'd like to follow along, please make sure to subscribe. I'm going to put the links to both of our channels right here on the screen. If you are not yet subscribed, it's a great way to support our work, great way to support independent media, and it is and always will be 100% free. So again, the links to both of our channels are right here on the screen. If you're not yet subscribed, please hit the subscribe button. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen.
And I'm Glenn Kersner.
You're watching the Legal Breakdown.
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