Over 100 former FBI officials spoke out against theindictment of James Comey, the bureau's former director, on Monday in a court filing.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that the officials filed an amicus brief to U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff, who is presiding over the Comey case, arguing that the charges should be dismissed. They reasoned that President Donald Trump's comments about the case demonstrate that Comey's indictment is more about exacting "personal retribution" instead of carrying out justice.
“Taken together, the totality of these circumstances indicate that the indictment of this defendant was not an exercise of the evenhanded judgment of a disinterested prosecutor, acting free from personal bias, partisan animus, or divided loyalties — as is required by the Constitution and the Department of Justice’s formal policies,” the filing reads. “Instead, it represented an act of personal retribution by the President, acting through a United States Attorney whom he had recently selected.”
Trump's hand-picked attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsay Halligan, secured a grand jury indictment against Comey alleging two counts of obstruction of justice and lying to Congress. Comey has denied all charges against him.
“This looks like a picking out of a political enemy and prosecuting that person,” said James Pearce, one of the attorneys who submitted the filing. “The brief makes clear that we are not advocating in any way a relaxation of the standards. The way that the vindictive-prosecution doctrine is that it is extraordinarily hard to meet. And it is appropriately not granted to the majority of defendants who seek it.”