The court ruling on Monday tossing the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James are a huge embarrassment for President Donald Trump's Justice Department, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig told CNN's Kasie Hunt — and while things aren't quite over just yet, it's a serious blow to Trump's push to prosecute his political critics.
The judge found that the indictments, which accuse Comey of obstruction and false statements for congressional testimony years previously and James of bank fraud for a minor discrepancy on old mortgage documents, are invalid because acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was not legally appointed to that role.
"I want to start with you here just because, I mean, this is a pretty unprecedented situation for, you know, any number of reasons," said Hunt. "What do you think is the real play here for the White House going forward, and considering the statute of limitations situation, especially in the Comey case, is there any word that comes back to life?"
"So, Kasie, this is undeniably, bottom line, an embarrassing setback, and a major setback for the Justice Department," said Honig. "The reason these cases have been thrown out for the moment at least, is the most fundamental reason of all, which is that the prosecutor indicted these cases was not technically acting properly as a prosecutor, but as you know, that does not mean that this issue is over for good. DOJ justinformed us that there will bean appeal, that's to beexpected."
"And it's alsoimportant to note this legalissue is, as you said,unprecedented," Honig continued. "In fact, thejudge in her rulings says thatthe law itself that this wasdecided under is ambiguous. Sothere is some room for differentinterpretations. But for now,the cases are out. This has tohurt for the Justice Department."
"But also, as you say, Kasie, there's another problem here, which is that the statute of limitations, the five-year period that you have to indict a case, appears to have run out for Jim Comey because the false testimony that Jim Comey allegedly gave happened on September 30th, 2020," Honig added. "Now, they indicted him just a few days before that, in September 2025. Of course, now we are after that period. So that's going to be a real problem for DOJ in looking to revive these cases. The same concern does not apply to Letitia James because her charge conduct goes up through 2024. So DOJ is on its heels now. And they've got to figure out a way back."