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#451
11 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

I do.  I care deeply.  IDGAF about comey, but I really need this whole sham to be shoved up dotard's asshole.

Meh. Since the rule of law is already dead, this fuckstick might as well rot in jail. 

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  • Comey getting dragged into a political investigation prosecuted by the man he put into office with a political investigation is some decent irony. I'm sure he'll beat the rap, but I kind of hope it's

  • more details on what HJ posted: MeidasTouch

  • Neither is Lindsey Halligan.

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#452
In US v Comey, Judge Currie finds that grand jury transcripts provided by govt are incomplete. Orders complete transcript and/or recordings of record by tomorrow at 5pm. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.582135/gov.uscourts.vaed.582135.148.0.pdf

 

#453
6 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:
In US v Comey, Judge Currie finds that grand jury transcripts provided by govt are incomplete. Orders complete transcript and/or recordings of record by tomorrow at 5pm. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.582135/gov.uscourts.vaed.582135.148.0.pdf

 

That's probably gonna be fun.  For Comey and counsel, at least.  Somewhat unlikely we see it.

#454
18 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Meh. Since the rule of law is already dead, this fuckstick might as well rot in jail. 

It is but it isn't.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/31/trump-administration-mandatory-detention-deportation-00632086

https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/

It's the only thing currently standing between Trump and a complete walkover.

#455
32 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

counterpoint: 

Trump says the SNAP money that he’s been ordered by a court to release won’t be released until the government shutdown ends.

 

#456
1 hour ago, Gil Bang said:

counterpoint: 

Trump says the SNAP money that he’s been ordered by a court to release won’t be released until the government shutdown ends.

 

So, open contempt of court.  

Andy Samberg GIF

#457

Soooo, rather than dead dead, the rule of law is just in a vegetative state on mechanical ventilation.

#458

Back on topic some things have become more clear.

Remember the indictment alleges that Comey lied about "authorizing" someone "at the FBI" to "leak anonymously."

There was some question about who that someone could be.  One speculation was Chris Wray, who apparently did leak anonymously, but even according to his testimony to Congress and elsewhere, did so without Comey's prior knowledge or approval.

The other person was Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia, with whom Comey communicated about various things as a friend and consiglieri.  And Richman was in fairly constant contact with the press, but rarely, if ever, anonymously.

And Richman was not an FBI employee, fairly obviously.  

He was, however, a "special employee" uncompensated consultant for the FBI.  But the terms of his "employment" are murky and it appears that he was not actually so employed in the relevant timeframe.

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/more-trouble-for-the-comey-indictment

Another hole in the government's already flimsy case.

The most glaring problem with the case is that what Comey said to Congress, within the limitations period, was "I stand by my earlier testimony."  And that is a statement that is not really capable of being proven false.  Certainly not by proving 2017 testimony false.

#459

Can we work out a deal where the government loses its bullshit case but Comey still winds up in jail for whatever reason?

Because

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQYXa2NyfIudNk5PYbJyj6

#460

Or he wins the case and then Trump sends him to Guantanamo Bay.

#461

How about Comey wins the case, but we find out his name is also in the Epstein files? Is that something that might interest you?

#462
On 11/8/2025 at 8:58 AM, TwiceHorn said:

Back on topic some things have become more clear.

Remember the indictment alleges that Comey lied about "authorizing" someone "at the FBI" to "leak anonymously."

There was some question about who that someone could be.  One speculation was Chris Wray, who apparently did leak anonymously, but even according to his testimony to Congress and elsewhere, did so without Comey's prior knowledge or approval.

The other person was Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia, with whom Comey communicated about various things as a friend and consiglieri.  And Richman was in fairly constant contact with the press, but rarely, if ever, anonymously.

And Richman was not an FBI employee, fairly obviously.  

He was, however, a "special employee" uncompensated consultant for the FBI.  But the terms of his "employment" are murky and it appears that he was not actually so employed in the relevant timeframe.

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/more-trouble-for-the-comey-indictment

Another hole in the government's already flimsy case.

The most glaring problem with the case is that what Comey said to Congress, within the limitations period, was "I stand by my earlier testimony."  And that is a statement that is not really capable of being proven false.  Certainly not by proving 2017 testimony false.

Chris Wray wasn't with the FBI when Comey was in charge.

#463
On 11/8/2025 at 8:58 AM, TwiceHorn said:

The most glaring problem with the case is that what Comey said to Congress, within the limitations period, was "I stand by my earlier testimony."  And that is a statement that is not really capable of being proven false.  Certainly not by proving 2017 testimony false.

How can one physically stand by something intangible? The Supreme Court will rule this is perjury per se. 

#464
54 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Chris Wray wasn't with the FBI when Comey was in charge.

I probably meant McCabe.  

#467
6 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

Care to give us a synopsis?  

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They are criminal dumbasses that don’t know how to do anything right. 

#468

A couple of issues.  

First, the government got a search warrant for Daniel Richman's devices in 2020.  The search warrant was limited to a certain time period and the crimes under investigation were leaking and misuse of classified information.

What they took in the seizure exceeded the time period both before and after.  Also, with Richman being a lawyer, they agreed that Richman had the right to review for privileged material before the government, so that happened, but on a kind of casual basis.  Also, they permitted Columbia U, Richman's employer, to review for "academically privileged" material, also on a kind of casual basis.

At the time, however, Richman was one of Comey's retained lawyers and they didn't give Comey any opportunity to review and assert privilege.

They also seemed to have reviewed materials before and after the time limitations set forth in the warrant.  When the government exceeds the scope of a warrant, they need another warrant to review that evidence and here they didn't get one, but seem to have reviewed it anyway.  

Halligan appeared to make two material misstatements of the law to the grand jury, and also implied  or stated that the government had better evidence that it wasn't sharing with the grand jury.  That is redacted.

Also, it is known that the grand jury was originally provided with a three-count indictment and they no-billed one, true-billed the other two.   That then, is a "no-billed" indictment.

Halligan would have then needed to re-present a second indictment with only the two true-billed counts and at least in theory run through the evidence again.  Either that didn't happen and the foreperson was presented with a different indictment to just sign off on, or the government didn' t produce the transcript of the second indictment presentation, or both.

Just a shit show of stupidity.  Trumpco is so bad at law.

Edited by TwiceHorn

#469
4 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

They are criminal dumbasses that don’t know how to do anything right. 

Its not even so much that they don't know how to do anything right, they just don't fucking care to do anything right. "right" to them is whatever advances their fucktarded MAGA agenda, by any means necessary. 

#470
7 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

They are criminal dumbasses that don’t know how to do anything right. 

Well, they don’t have to worry about facing any consequences, so they’ve got that going for them.

#471

Also, the issue of the legality of Halligan's appointment in Comey's and Letitia James' cases has been referred to another judge, in South Carolina.

That hearing took place last week and the judge expressed quite a bit of skepticism.

One kind of hilarious thing is that the government is having to contradict Aileen Cannon's analysis of why Jack Smith's appointment was invalid.  Her ruling is not precedent and is not binding on any other court and, it is a different situation in many respects, but the government is basically having to argue that Pam Bondi has authority to appoint counsel that Merrick Garland lacked, because reasons.

 

 

#472

From that Opinion:

Quote

The government presented this case to the grand jury on September 25, 2025.  ECF 1.  The same day, prior to the grand jury presentment, Agent-2 alerted the lead case agent (hereinafter referred to as Agent-3) and an attorney with the FBI’s Office of General Counsel that “evidence obtained in the Government’s investigation of James Comey may constitute attorney-client privileged or attorney-client confidential information.  It is also possible that [the agents] may have obtained evidence that constitutes attorney work-product information.”8  ECF 89-5.  Agent-2 gave Agent-3 and the FBI attorney “a limited overview of the [privileged] communications.”  ECF 1722.9  Agent-3, rather than remove himself from the investigative team until the taint issue was resolved, proceeded into the grand jury undeterred and testified in support of the pending indictment.  ECF 179.  In fact, Agent-3 was the only witness to testify before the grand jury in support of the pending indictment.  Id. The government’s decision to allow an agent who was exposed to potentially privileged information to testify before a grand jury is highly irregular and a radical departure from past DOJ practice.  

Sadly, highly irregular and radical departure from norms is the new norm. 

#473
Phang: It is a fundamental premise of the law that there is no requirement that a criminal defendant be forced to testify to explain away the government’s evidence. Hallagan went to law school and knows better, but she’s so stupid that she made that misstatement of the law to the grand jury.

 

#477
5 minutes ago, VABuckeye said:

The BEST evidence!!!!!!

I, uh, left it at home though.  I'll make sure to bring it to trial. 

#478
3 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

I, uh, left it at home though.  I'll make sure to bring it to trial. 

YARN | I'll do it on the night | Shaun of the Dead (2004) | Video gifs by  quotes | 36cf15ec | 紗

#479
21 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Magistrate judge finds search warrant and grand jury shenanigans highly likely.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.582136/gov.uscourts.vaed.582136.191.0.pdf

Another kind of amusing thing.  In the government's response to the motion to dismiss for selective/vindictive prosecution, they spun a factual narrative of Comey's communications with Richman and Richman' communications with the press.  But it ignored the timing of the communications, that is when Richman was (and was not) a "special employee" of the FBI, and the fact that Richman's communications with the press were never anonymous and never reported as such.

The magistrate judge's recitation of the facts strongly contradicts that.  It doesn't really matter who is right on that (the magistrate is), but that it can be interpreted both ways strongly indicates reasonable doubt.

 

#480

Fun piece from Wittes/Lawfare on this.

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-situation--malevolence--incompetence--and-the-strange-case-of-lindsey-halligan

Oh.

ETA:  Also like Wittes' conclusion here.

All of this evil incompetence would be comical, except for the real world effects—incompetent evil being funny only in the movies.

Because what is the point of all this abuse and rake-stomping? It is all intended to deploy the legal system to establish a falsehood, which is that James Comey lied to Congress eight years ago and then doubled down on that lie, and thus obstructed a congressional investigation, five years ago.

And why is it important for the United States federal government to establish this lie as official truth? Because if Comey is not a liar, then a lot of things are true that aren’t allowed to be true—like, for example, that Donald Trump had, and may still have, an untoward relationship with Russia and its president that warranted serious investigation in 2017 and still warrants scrutiny today, that the Russia investigation and its progeny were not a witch hunt, that Trump has tried to rig the justice system from the earliest days of his presidency, and that an entire political movement has eagerly lied to itself, and to the public, to deny these reality. And that it has been doing so—however incompetently and malevolently—for eight years and counting. 

Just like Lindsey Halligan.

Edited by TwiceHorn

#481

I'm starting to think it's a risky strategy to select federal prosecutors based on cup size. 

#482
2 minutes ago, Tuco said:

I'm starting to think it's a risky strategy to select federal prosecutors based on cup size. 

Especially if the cup size derives from polymeric substances.

#484
18 hours ago, Gil Bang said:
Phang: It is a fundamental premise of the law that there is no requirement that a criminal defendant be forced to testify to explain away the government’s evidence. Hallagan went to law school and knows better, but she’s so stupid that she made that misstatement of the law to the grand jury.

 

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#485
19 hours ago, Gil Bang said:
Phang: It is a fundamental premise of the law that there is no requirement that a criminal defendant be forced to testify to explain away the government’s evidence. Hallagan went to law school and knows better, but she’s so stupid that she made that misstatement of the law to the grand jury.

 

I'm sure she will take the judge's rebuke to heart and use it as a learning opportunity.

#486
2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Fun piece from Wittes/Lawfare on this.

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-situation--malevolence--incompetence--and-the-strange-case-of-lindsey-halligan

Oh.

ETA:  Also like Wittes' conclusion here.

All of this evil incompetence would be comical, except for the real world effects—incompetent evil being funny only in the movies.

Because what is the point of all this abuse and rake-stomping? It is all intended to deploy the legal system to establish a falsehood, which is that James Comey lied to Congress eight years ago and then doubled down on that lie, and thus obstructed a congressional investigation, five years ago.

And why is it important for the United States federal government to establish this lie as official truth? Because if Comey is not a liar, then a lot of things are true that aren’t allowed to be true—like, for example, that Donald Trump had, and may still have, an untoward relationship with Russia and its president that warranted serious investigation in 2017 and still warrants scrutiny today, that the Russia investigation and its progeny were not a witch hunt, that Trump has tried to rig the justice system from the earliest days of his presidency, and that an entire political movement has eagerly lied to itself, and to the public, to deny these reality. And that it has been doing so—however incompetently and malevolently—for eight years and counting. 

Just like Lindsey Halligan.

You know, I don't know whether to be encouraged or discouraged.  It is encouraging that Trump (Stephen Miller) is slowly failing at just about everything he is trying to do. The foundation of American democracy is holding.  That should be encouraging.  Except, a plurality of American voters wanted this and they want Trump (Stephen Miller) to succeed.  That is discouraging.

I had another thought - American democracy has to expose itself to risk in order to maintain itself.  It's like the tradeoff between security and freedom.  How do we put restrictions on the president so that this kind of shit doesn't happen, while still allowing him or her to act as necessary for the benefit of the country?  There are benefits to a strong executive when they are a good faith actor.  Not so much when you have a bad faith actor who is literally constrained by nothing.

#487
5 minutes ago, Ojo Rojo said:

You know, I don't know whether to be encouraged or discouraged.  It is encouraging that Trump (Stephen Miller) is slowly failing at just about everything he is trying to do. The foundation of American democracy is holding.  That should be encouraging.  Except, a plurality of American voters wanted this and they want Trump (Stephen Miller) to succeed.  That is discouraging.

I had another thought - American democracy has to expose itself to risk in order to maintain itself.  It's like the tradeoff between security and freedom.  How do we put restrictions on the president so that this kind of shit doesn't happen, while still allowing him or her to act as necessary for the benefit of the country?  There are benefits to a strong executive when they are a good faith actor.  Not so much when you have a bad faith actor who is literally constrained by nothing.

It's not on this thread, but one of the others regarding the effective dissolution of the United States Department of Justice.

It's infuriating and sad.

It has never been a perfect institution, by any stretch of the imagination, but what Trump and his cronies are doing is fucking disgusting.

#488
So here’s what apparently happened: they tried to indict Comey on the last day of the statute with a three-count indictment. The grand jury rejected one. Rather than cross it out or indicate on the indictment that only two of the three counts were voted upon, Halligan creates…/1 [contains quote post or other embedded content]
/2 …a new indictment, which shows only the two counts they true billed, and has the foreperson sign it without presenting it to the grand jury. That sounds like something Halligan would do.

 

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#489

more details on what HJ posted:

NEWS: A stunning courtroom admission may have just blown up the Trump DOJ's case against James Comey. Prosecutors just admitted the full grand jury NEVER reviewed the final indictment, only the foreperson did, after Lindsey Halligan brought an altered version straight to the magistrate. 1/
Judge Nachmanoff shut Halligan down after she tried to defend it, and Comey’s attorney declared, “There is no indictment.” With the statute of limitations now expired, the entire case may have just collapsed. 2/2

I hope this woman prosecutes every case for the DOJ in their witch hunt. She's wonderfully incompetent.

#491

Trump: That person needs brain surgery!!!!

Brain Surgeon: Uh, no, sir. That person does not need brain surgery.

Trump: Yes, brain surgery is clearly needed!!!!

Brain Surgeon 2,3,&4: No, brain surgery is not justified based on the symptoms and test results.

Trump: Nonsense! Hey, you, doctor! That person needs brain surgery and I need you to do it now!

Podiatrist: Yes, sir! I'm on it!

#492
26 minutes ago, The Dog said:

more details on what HJ posted:

NEWS: A stunning courtroom admission may have just blown up the Trump DOJ's case against James Comey. Prosecutors just admitted the full grand jury NEVER reviewed the final indictment, only the foreperson did, after Lindsey Halligan brought an altered version straight to the magistrate. 1/
Judge Nachmanoff shut Halligan down after she tried to defend it, and Comey’s attorney declared, “There is no indictment.” With the statute of limitations now expired, the entire case may have just collapsed. 2/2

I hope this woman prosecutes every case for the DOJ in their witch hunt. She's wonderfully incompetent.

Yeah, that's what the magistrate indicated, but wasn't quite as sure that that rendered the indictment a nullity.

Whatever popehat says about it is probably accurate because he's a seasoned federal prosecutor and defense lawyer.

This is probably a rare situation because it is probably pretty rare for a federal grand jury to no bill an indictment, period, much less just one charge.  Meaning, federal prosecutors don't often bring indictments to the grand jury without probable cause, and the probable cause standard means you can indict a ham sandwich.

 

#493
31 minutes ago, The Dog said:

more details on what HJ posted:

NEWS: A stunning courtroom admission may have just blown up the Trump DOJ's case against James Comey. Prosecutors just admitted the full grand jury NEVER reviewed the final indictment, only the foreperson did, after Lindsey Halligan brought an altered version straight to the magistrate. 1/
Judge Nachmanoff shut Halligan down after she tried to defend it, and Comey’s attorney declared, “There is no indictment.” With the statute of limitations now expired, the entire case may have just collapsed. 2/2

I hope this woman prosecutes every case for the DOJ in their witch hunt. She's wonderfully incompetent.

As glaringly incompetent as she is, the rest of Trumpco (Harmeet Dhillon, Todd Blanche) doesn't seem much better.

And they really are running off all the decent civil servant prosecutors.

#494
This is a fantastic bit of lawyering by a prosecutor who just effectively told the judge that a declination memo exists without technically violating his direct instructions [contains quote post or other embedded content]

Bahaha.

#495
47 minutes ago, The Dog said:

more details on what HJ posted:

NEWS: A stunning courtroom admission may have just blown up the Trump DOJ's case against James Comey. Prosecutors just admitted the full grand jury NEVER reviewed the final indictment, only the foreperson did, after Lindsey Halligan brought an altered version straight to the magistrate. 1/
Judge Nachmanoff shut Halligan down after she tried to defend it, and Comey’s attorney declared, “There is no indictment.” With the statute of limitations now expired, the entire case may have just collapsed. 2/2

I hope this woman prosecutes every case for the DOJ in their witch hunt. She's wonderfully incompetent.



I am shocked, SHOCKED I SAY, that a real estate agent doesn't understand how to lawyer. 

#496

Just want to say that every time this thread is bumped to where I see it, I sing James Comey Island in a disturbingly Pavlovian way. 

Edited by Pato del Muerto

#497
52 minutes ago, gernblansten said:

Trump: That person needs brain surgery!!!!

Brain Surgeon: Uh, no, sir. That person does not need brain surgery.

Trump: Yes, brain surgery is clearly needed!!!!

Brain Surgeon 2,3,&4: No, brain surgery is not justified based on the symptoms and test results.

Trump: Nonsense! Hey, you, doctor! That person needs brain surgery and I need you to do it now!

Podiatrist: Yes, sir! I'm on it!

And the doctor says “that’s not a foot!”

and the patient responds “i didn’t know there was a minimum!”

#498

To the lawyers here, how serious is this? Is this something those prosecutors could be disbarred for?

#499
1 minute ago, cattail said:

To the lawyers here, how serious is this? Is this something those prosecutors could be disbarred for?

The actual prosecutors are doing their job, basically, see post 494.  

The problem with them is that they for some unfathomable reason stepped up to handle a case where they knew or should have known that the government/administration would put them in difficult ethical positions.  See also post 494.

So far, what Halligan has been shown to have been done is incompetence, which is an ethical violation, but is usually addressed by malpractice litigation rather than lawyer discipline.

 

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