By Darren Lyn
HOUSTON, United States (AA) - Lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey asked a federal judge Thursday to dismiss the respective cases filed against them by the Trump administration, according to media reports.
Both parties' legal teams said the charges against their clients should be thrown out, arguing that Trump-selected prosecutor Lindsey Halligan, who brought forth the indictments, was illegally installed.
Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury in September on one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding related to his September 2020 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and is currently awaiting trial, which is scheduled for January 2026.
James was indicted in October on one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution regarding a property she purchased as a personal home, which prosecutors said she used as an investment property. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Both parties claim that Trump is targeting them because they do not see eye-to-eye with the president and are considered political enemies of Trump.
Halligan, a former personal lawyer for Trump, was appointed as the interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia at his urging by Attorney General Pam Bondi in September, just days before Comey was indicted.
Lawyers for Comey and James said the move was a roundabout way of sidestepping constitutional and statutory rules used for the appointment of US attorneys.
They added that the maneuver was designed to ensure indictments against Comey and James after the prosecutor who had been overseeing the two investigations, Erik Siebert, had not brought charges against both the two and was effectively forced out of his position.
US District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie said she expects to make a decision on challenges to Halligan’s appointment by Thanksgiving.