Trump DOJ Trying to Get New Grand Jury to Indict Comey Again Despite Statute of Limitations Already Expiring

The Department of Justice is trying to bring a new indictment against former FBI Director James Comey after the previous attempt was dismissed, according to a report by MS NOW.

In that previous case, Comey had entered not guilty pleas for the two counts against him: making a false statement to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The prosecution was widely panned as lacking in legal merit, even by numerous conservatives, with many viewing the case as a politically motivated prosecution by President Donald Trump and finding multiple flaws with the documents filed by the president’s recent appointee for U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, his former attorney Lindsey Halligan.

U.S. District Court Judge Cameron McGowan Currie for the District of South Carolina, a Clinton appointee, dismissed the case against Comey last month, finding that the full grand jury never saw the full indictment and that Halligan, the sole prosecutor who presented the case to the grand jury, was unlawfully appointed. The dismissal was without prejudice, but as Currie further pointed out, the statute of limitations expired on Sept. 30 and “there is no legitimate peg” to extend it further.

MS NOW anchor Ana Cabrera brought on the network’s justice and intelligence reporter Ken Dilanian to cover the newest developments in the case, reporting on a “source familiar with the matter” who said the DOJ was quickly moving to take a second crack at prosecuting Comey.

Dilanian commented that the grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia was meeting Tuesday, so “in theory” the DOJ’s efforts to secure a new indictment could come within hours, “but we don’t believe that anything is quite that imminent.”

“And remember, no career prosecutor in the Eastern District was willing to work on either of those cases,” Dilanian pointed out, and the DOJ had to bring in prosecutors from other states, one from Missouri, one from North Carolina, and they had to “search high and low to find people around the country who were willing to come and put their names on these controversial cases that a lot of legal experts believe really have no merit or are very thin on the evidence.”

Attempting to get the case before a new grand jury was “a risky move,” Dilanian continued, because if the grand jury declines to indict again it “would be another embarrassment for the Justice Department.” Still, he noted, it would be quicker than an appeal of Halligan’s appointment, “which could take many, many months to get a ruling.”

“Ken, what about the statute of limitations?” asked Cabrera. “Isn’t that an issue for the Comey case?”

“It is, but that’s in dispute,” he replied. “Comey’s lawyers definitely insist that this case can’t be re-indicted because they say the indictment was null and void, it never really was properly presented because of grand jury misconduct. But that will have to be litigated. The judge left open the door — the judge who ruled last week that this case could be re-indicted. But again, that’s a matter of dispute. It’ll have to be litigated on.”

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.

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