Former Miami-Dade County Court Judge Jeff Swartz concluded that the Department of Justice's case against former FBI Director James Comey was essentially "over" after interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan admitted that the grand jury never saw the government's final indictment.
In a hearing on Wednesday, Halligan told U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff that the full grand jury never saw the final two-count indictment against Comey.
"The foreperson and another grand juror was also present," Halligan explained to the judge.
Speaking to CNN, Swartz noted that there had been two different indictments. The grand jury did not approve the first one. Instead, Halligan used the second indictment to charge Comey — even though the full grand jury had not seen it.
The former judge said Nachmanoff essentially wanted to know: "How did you get the jurors back in the jury room to look at this second indictment with only two counts in seven minutes?"
"And all that turned out was, all that happened was that Lindsey Halligan took it to the foreperson and one other person and had them sign it," he noted. "Those jurors never voted on the second indictment. So therefore, there was no indictment. And if there was no indictment, Comey wasn't charged. He wasn't charged. The statute of limitations ran, and the case is over."
"What we saw was the crossroads between arrogance and ignorance," he continued. "And they both crossed. Halligan being the ignorance, arrogance coming out of Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche. And they cross it. It's a very crucial point, and there's no cure for it."
