The Trump Justice Department spent Monday getting its ass kicked by one Comey and countered by revealing it charged the other. The administration has charged James Comey for a THIRD time, continuing to chase the former FBI Director as Seashellgate flops.
Let’s begin with the loss. In a 55-page decision, Judge Jesse Furman ruled that the July 2025 firing of Maurene Comey violated the separation of powers and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. Comey the Younger had been an SDNY prosecutor since 2015, working on such high-profile matters as the Sean Combs, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell cases. For some reason, her her dogged pursuit of sex offenders wasn’t seen as an asset to this White House.
Go figure!
Anyway, Judge Furman retroactively reinstated her and ordered back pay from the firing through December 20, the date when she took a job with Patterson Belknap.
The firing memo never gave a reason. It just announced that she was being removed:
Pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States…
Judge Furman called the DOJ’s position a “sweeping and unprecedented theory of executive authority,” a fair description of a firing that couldn’t be bothered to fabricate an excuse. Indeed, the government’s only nod toward justification came the same day DOJ filed its answer in May, when the Acting Attorney General produced a memo to “ratify and affirm” the removal.
In court, DOJ argued that line prosecutors can be removed without cause by either the president or the Attorney General on the theory that executive power can be as arbitrary and capricious as the Oval Office wants. The department leaned on the Supreme Court’s June decision letting the president fire independent agency members without cause — a decision that baselessly blew up a precedent that had stood for more than 90 years — to argue that everyone within the government can be fired on a whim.
Except a prosecutor isn’t an agency commissioner. Congress has regulated how inferior officers get removed for a very long time and Judge Furman correctly noted that the administration was trying to “upend” that settled law.
DOJ says it will appeal “in due course.”
The DOJ hoped to drown out headlines of this Comey debacle by unveiling another one — unsealing more charges against James Comey.
In a case before Judge Trevor McFadden, the government asserts two counts against James Comey for transmission of national defense information and conspiracy to transmit it, over a sensitive national security document he allegedly leaked as FBI director in October 2016.
What was it? Something about a NY Times article in 2016 about Yahoo’s spam filter. But it’s worth noting that October 2016 was also when Comey informed Congress that he needed to check Anthony Weiner’s laptop to see if there were any Hillary emails missed in the earlier investigation (there weren’t). So now the Trump admin is charging Comey over leaks that happened at the same time another leak he was caught up in helped put Trump in the White House in the first place.
And they say irony is dead.
If you’re wondering how the DOJ charges someone for a crime well past the statute of limitations… congratulations! For its part, the DOJ didn’t even try to get an indictment, opting instead for a sealed “waiverless criminal information,” filed on October 5, to stop the statute of limitations from running. Since the DOJ would need to get a grand jury to agree to their latest conspiracy theory before the statute runs, prosecutors hope to use the information to toll the limitations period while they get their ducks in a row. Which is why the now-unsealed document reads like Todd Blanche is grasping for all the straws. Prosecutors leaned on this “information to stop the statute of limitations” tactic during COVID, when grand juries literally couldn’t meet, an exigency that’s presently lacking.
Grand juries sit in D.C. right now… they just keep refusing to indict people when the DOJ can’t produce any evidence.
So one can understand why the DOJ is reticent to put their latest accusation through the crucible of a grand jury. Better to fling vague allegations at the wall, generate the headlines they want, and then slowly slink away. Which, as it happens, was the exact motivation behind congressional Republicans leaking Comey’s quick Hillary email follow up in October 2016. He told Congress then that there was almost certainly nothing to the unearthed emails that he hadn’t already dismissed months earlier, but they ran to the public with the news anyway.
Then, because this administration can’t do anything without running face first into a rake, the DOJ filed a “Notice of Correction of Scrivener’s Errors” to fix the boneheaded errors in the document. To be clear, during the three weeks this lived under seal, there’s been a hearing, a motion to dismiss, and the DOJ’s own 51-page response. Only now, that the public gets to read the charging document, did someone notice it needs fixing.
Because, like the aforementioned “ratify and affirm” memo in the Maurene Comey case, this Department fills out all its permission slips after the field trip.
So Jim Comey begins round 3. First came Lindsey Halligan’s false statements case, brought after career prosecutors advised against it. That was dismissed because Halligan was never legally in the job. The administration tried to pinch Comey for taking pictures of seashells in a case that’s been pushed to January 2027 with ripe vindictive and selective prosecution motions on deck. Now this decade-old leak charge.
But the two halves of Monday are really one story. This DOJ believes it’s unbound by the rule of law. It thinks it can fire someone because the president is mad at their family (and it doesn’t hurt that she knew a lot about Jeffrey Epstein’s circle of friends…). And it thinks it can just wave its hands to get around the statute of limitations based on vague assertions.
The DOJ is just a bunch of arbitrary and vindictive actions piled on top of typos.
Earlier: James Comey Indicted For Playing With Sea Shells In New Low Point For DOJ Integrity
Maureen Comey Tries To 86 47’s Firing Her
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
The post After Maurene Comey Kicked Trump Admin In The Teeth, DOJ Reveals *Third* Attempt To Jail James Comey appeared first on Above the Law.
The Trump Justice Department spent Monday getting its ass kicked by one Comey and countered by revealing it charged the other. The administration has charged James Comey for a THIRD time, continuing to chase the former FBI Director as Seashellgate flops.
Let’s begin with the loss. In a 55-page decision, Judge Jesse Furman ruled that the July 2025 firing of Maurene Comey violated the separation of powers and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. Comey the Younger had been an SDNY prosecutor since 2015, working on such high-profile matters as the Sean Combs, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell cases. For some reason, her her dogged pursuit of sex offenders wasn’t seen as an asset to this White House.
Go figure!
Anyway, Judge Furman retroactively reinstated her and ordered back pay from the firing through December 20, the date when she took a job with Patterson Belknap.
The firing memo never gave a reason. It just announced that she was being removed:
Pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States…
Judge Furman called the DOJ’s position a “sweeping and unprecedented theory of executive authority,” a fair description of a firing that couldn’t be bothered to fabricate an excuse. Indeed, the government’s only nod toward justification came the same day DOJ filed its answer in May, when the Acting Attorney General produced a memo to “ratify and affirm” the removal.
In court, DOJ argued that line prosecutors can be removed without cause by either the president or the Attorney General on the theory that executive power can be as arbitrary and capricious as the Oval Office wants. The department leaned on the Supreme Court’s June decision letting the president fire independent agency members without cause — a decision that baselessly blew up a precedent that had stood for more than 90 years — to argue that everyone within the government can be fired on a whim.
Except a prosecutor isn’t an agency commissioner. Congress has regulated how inferior officers get removed for a very long time and Judge Furman correctly noted that the administration was trying to “upend” that settled law.
DOJ says it will appeal “in due course.”
The DOJ hoped to drown out headlines of this Comey debacle by unveiling another one — unsealing more charges against James Comey.
In a case before Judge Trevor McFadden, the government asserts two counts against James Comey for transmission of national defense information and conspiracy to transmit it, over a sensitive national security document he allegedly leaked as FBI director in October 2016.
What was it? Something about a NY Times article in 2016 about Yahoo’s spam filter. But it’s worth noting that October 2016 was also when Comey informed Congress that he needed to check Anthony Weiner’s laptop to see if there were any Hillary emails missed in the earlier investigation (there weren’t). So now the Trump admin is charging Comey over leaks that happened at the same time another leak he was caught up in helped put Trump in the White House in the first place.
And they say irony is dead.
If you’re wondering how the DOJ charges someone for a crime well past the statute of limitations… congratulations! For its part, the DOJ didn’t even try to get an indictment, opting instead for a sealed “waiverless criminal information,” filed on October 5, to stop the statute of limitations from running. Since the DOJ would need to get a grand jury to agree to their latest conspiracy theory before the statute runs, prosecutors hope to use the information to toll the limitations period while they get their ducks in a row. Which is why the now-unsealed document reads like Todd Blanche is grasping for all the straws. Prosecutors leaned on this “information to stop the statute of limitations” tactic during COVID, when grand juries literally couldn’t meet, an exigency that’s presently lacking.
Grand juries sit in D.C. right now… they just keep refusing to indict people when the DOJ can’t produce any evidence.
So one can understand why the DOJ is reticent to put their latest accusation through the crucible of a grand jury. Better to fling vague allegations at the wall, generate the headlines they want, and then slowly slink away. Which, as it happens, was the exact motivation behind congressional Republicans leaking Comey’s quick Hillary email follow up in October 2016. He told Congress then that there was almost certainly nothing to the unearthed emails that he hadn’t already dismissed months earlier, but they ran to the public with the news anyway.
Then, because this administration can’t do anything without running face first into a rake, the DOJ filed a “Notice of Correction of Scrivener’s Errors” to fix the boneheaded errors in the document. To be clear, during the three weeks this lived under seal, there’s been a hearing, a motion to dismiss, and the DOJ’s own 51-page response. Only now, that the public gets to read the charging document, did someone notice it needs fixing.
Because, like the aforementioned “ratify and affirm” memo in the Maurene Comey case, this Department fills out all its permission slips after the field trip.
So Jim Comey begins round 3. First came Lindsey Halligan’s false statements case, brought after career prosecutors advised against it. That was dismissed because Halligan was never legally in the job. The administration tried to pinch Comey for taking pictures of seashells in a case that’s been pushed to January 2027 with ripe vindictive and selective prosecution motions on deck. Now this decade-old leak charge.
But the two halves of Monday are really one story. This DOJ believes it’s unbound by the rule of law. It thinks it can fire someone because the president is mad at their family (and it doesn’t hurt that she knew a lot about Jeffrey Epstein’s circle of friends…). And it thinks it can just wave its hands to get around the statute of limitations based on vague assertions.
The DOJ is just a bunch of arbitrary and vindictive actions piled on top of typos.
Earlier: James Comey Indicted For Playing With Sea Shells In New Low Point For DOJ Integrity
Maureen Comey Tries To 86 47’s Firing Her
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
The post After Maurene Comey Kicked Trump Admin In The Teeth, DOJ Reveals *Third* Attempt To Jail James Comey appeared first on Above the Law.
