{"id":134096,"date":"2025-09-29T14:26:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T22:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/09\/29\/james-comey-taps-small-law-to-defend-him-against-witch-hunt\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T14:26:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T22:26:45","slug":"james-comey-taps-small-law-to-defend-him-against-witch-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/09\/29\/james-comey-taps-small-law-to-defend-him-against-witch-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"James Comey Taps Small Law To Defend Him Against Witch Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t overstate the importance of the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey<\/a>. Despite the weak protests <\/a>of the Vice President, the move smacks of bald faced political retribution on evidence so flimsy Erik Siebert, the career prosecutor \u2014 appointed by Donald Trump, no less \u2014 at the Eastern District of Virginia was forced out of his job<\/a> for refusing to bring these personally motivated charges (and ones against another Trump enemy,<\/a> New York Attorney General Letitia James). Siebert was replaced by Trump flunkie Lindsey Halligan, who I\u2019d refer to as deeply unserious if she didn\u2019t wield so much undeserved power. And, she\u2019s already objectively embarrassing at her job.<\/p>\n

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\n
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US Magistrate Judge Vaala trying to untangle Lindsey Halligan’s first adventure in indicting someone: pic.twitter.com\/PZv2NWNjbM<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Roger Parloff (@rparloff) September 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Former White House attorney and current thorn in Donald Trump\u2019s side Ty Cobb told MSNBC\u2019s Alex Witt<\/a> \u201cwe should be scared to death\u201d over the indictment and the obvious threat it poses to democracy. There\u2019s \u201cjustifiable paranoia<\/a>\u201d that others who have crossed the president will also be churned through the criminal justice system as the president keeps pushing these vendettas. <\/a><\/p>\n

Given the sky high stakes of the case, many are wondering who is handling Comey\u2019s criminal case? Repping Comey is Michigan solo practitioner Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is a retired Skadden partner who previously represented Comey after he was fired by Trump as FBI Director. He has a long personal history<\/a> with Comey and the two met when they were with the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office in Manhattan. That\u2019s right, unlike Halligan, the defense team actually has prosecutorial experience! In fact, Fitzgerald led a number of high profile prosecutions including those against former Illinois governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich,\u00a01993 World Trade Center bombing mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, and Dick Cheney\u2019s Chief of Staff Scooter Libby.<\/p>\n

Comey also has local counsel in Jessica Carmichael, one of the founders of Virginia-based Carmichael Ellis & Brock with previous experience in the Federal Public Defender\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Comey has expressed confidence in the legal system posting<\/a> on Instagram that he\u2019s \u201cnot afraid, and I hope you\u2019re not either.\u201d Though he noted, \u201cMy heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I\u2019m innocent. So let\u2019s have a trial and keep the faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post James Comey Taps Small Law To Defend Him Against Witch Hunt<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t overstate the importance of the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey<\/a>. Despite the weak protests <\/a>of the Vice President, the move smacks of bald faced political retribution on evidence so flimsy Erik Siebert, the career prosecutor \u2014 appointed by Donald Trump, no less \u2014 at the Eastern District of Virginia was forced out of his job<\/a> for refusing to bring these personally motivated charges (and ones against another Trump enemy,<\/a> New York Attorney General Letitia James). Siebert was replaced by Trump flunkie Lindsey Halligan, who I\u2019d refer to as deeply unserious if she didn\u2019t wield so much undeserved power. And, she\u2019s already objectively embarrassing at her job.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

US Magistrate Judge Vaala trying to untangle Lindsey Halligan’s first adventure in indicting someone: pic.twitter.com\/PZv2NWNjbM<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Roger Parloff (@rparloff) September 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Former White House attorney and current thorn in Donald Trump\u2019s side Ty Cobb told MSNBC\u2019s Alex Witt<\/a> \u201cwe should be scared to death\u201d over the indictment and the obvious threat it poses to democracy. There\u2019s \u201cjustifiable paranoia<\/a>\u201d that others who have crossed the president will also be churned through the criminal justice system as the president keeps pushing these vendettas. <\/a><\/p>\n

Given the sky high stakes of the case, many are wondering who is handling Comey\u2019s criminal case? Repping Comey is Michigan solo practitioner Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is a retired Skadden partner who previously represented Comey after he was fired by Trump as FBI Director. He has a long personal history<\/a> with Comey and the two met when they were with the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office in Manhattan. That\u2019s right, unlike Halligan, the defense team actually has prosecutorial experience! In fact, Fitzgerald led a number of high profile prosecutions including those against former Illinois governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich,\u00a01993 World Trade Center bombing mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, and Dick Cheney\u2019s Chief of Staff Scooter Libby.<\/p>\n

Comey also has local counsel in Jessica Carmichael, one of the founders of Virginia-based Carmichael Ellis & Brock with previous experience in the Federal Public Defender\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Comey has expressed confidence in the legal system posting<\/a> on Instagram that he\u2019s \u201cnot afraid, and I hope you\u2019re not either.\u201d Though he noted, \u201cMy heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I\u2019m innocent. So let\u2019s have a trial and keep the faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post James Comey Taps Small Law To Defend Him Against Witch Hunt<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t overstate the importance of the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey. Despite the weak protests of the Vice President, the move smacks of bald faced political retribution on evidence so flimsy Erik Siebert, the career prosecutor \u2014 appointed by Donald Trump, no less \u2014 at the Eastern District of Virginia was forced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":134097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-MxWrUf.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}