Department of Justice lawyers complained that a recent court ruling has effectively paralyzed their ability to seek a new indictment against former FBI Director James Comey.
In a court filing on Tuesday, DOJ attorneys Todd Blanche and Lindsey Halligan asked the court to dissolve a temporary restraining order preventing them from using electronic communications seized from Comey confidante Daniel Richman.
The Justice Department relied heavily on evidence from Richman for its claim that Comey lied to Congress in 2020 about authorizing a leak to the media.
Over the weekend, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted Richman a temporary restraining order on Fourth Amendment grounds.
"Given that the custody and control of this material is the central issue in this matter, uncertainty about its whereabouts weighs in favor of acting promptly to preserve the status quo," the judge wrote.
Richman is a Columbia University law professor who briefly worked for the FBI. However, the date he worked for the FBI has come under scrutiny after Halligan relied on it in her first indictment of Comey. A federal judge later dismissed that indictment, ruling that Halligan had been unlawfully appointed.
In the Tuesday filing, the DOJ accused Richman of using his lawsuit against the government as "a strategic tool to obstruct the investigation and potential prosecution of James B. Comey."
