Overview
- Judge Cameron McGowan Currie held that the attorney general’s interim appointment authority expired on May 21 under 28 U.S.C. § 546, shifting the power to fill the vacancy to the district court.
- The court ruled that all actions flowing from Lindsey Halligan’s defective appointment, including securing and signing both indictments, must be set aside.
- The cases were dismissed without prejudice, though any attempt to refile against James Comey appears constrained by an expired statute of limitations.
- Halligan, a Trump ally with no prior prosecutorial experience, was installed after Erik Siebert resigned under pressure and quickly obtained indictments against Comey and Letitia James.
- Separate rulings had flagged grand-jury irregularities in the Comey matter, and other courts have questioned similar Trump-era interim U.S. attorney appointments.