Former FBI Director James Comey is likely to come out of the gates swinging with a scorched-earth strategy to get the charges President Donald Trump's Justice Department brought against him dismissed, a former federal prosecutor told CBS News on Tuesday.
Comey, against whom Trump has held a vendetta ever since he refused to shut down the Russia investigation for him in his first year in office, is being charged with false statements and obstruction of justice, based on testimony to the Senate that Trump's prosecutors couldn't even quote correctly.
Legal experts have suspected the case was doomed from the start for a variety of reasons, including that Trump had to fire the former eastern Virginia prosecutor when he couldn't find the evidence to bring charges, and replaced him with his former defense lawyer, who has no significant prosecutorial experience. That attorney, Lindsey Halligan, proceeded to file the incorrect charging documents with the court.
All of this amounts to a strong likelihood Comey can get the case thrown out before it even gets close to trial, one expert said.
"Former prosecutor Scott Fredericksen tells @cbsnews he expects James Comey to promptly seek dismissal of criminal case: 'I think he's going to come right out of the box, moving to dismiss the case on very aggressive grounds. He probably leads w/ vindictive prosecution,'" wrote correspondent Scott MacFarlane on X.
"Not only that, but when he files that motion ... he's going to demand to get all the records the Dept of Justice has about the other prosecutors who looked at this case & decided not to bring this case," Fredericksen continued.
