Deadline Legal Blog-Statute of limitations is a new issue that a potential second Comey indictment could face

[LetMyPeopleVote]

A judge’s dismissal of the former FBI director’s indictment left open the possibility of charging him again but noted a timing issue that could thwart a second indictment.
https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/james-comey-new-indictment-statute-limitations-halligan-trump

The Justice Department reportedly is considering seeking a new indictment against James Comey, whose case was dismissed last week by a judge who said the prosecutor who brought the charges, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed. The judge’s dismissal was “without prejudice,” meaning it wasn’t a permanent dismissal. It left open the possibility of new charges brought by a lawful prosecutor.

But if the DOJ secures another indictment against the former FBI director, that might only resume the tough time the prosecution was already having, even aside from the appointment issue. Comey had several pending pretrial motions that were unresolved at the point of the dismissal. Among them was his claim that the Donald Trump-demanded charges, secured by a former personal lawyer of the president’s without prior prosecutorial experience, were unconstitutionally vindictive.

On top of that issue and others, if Comey were to face a new indictment, then his lawyers could argue that the charges are barred by the statute of limitations, which Halligan barely beat when she obtained the indictment in September (over the objection of career prosecutors).

The timing issue surfaced in part of U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie’s ruling that dismissed Comey’s indictment on the grounds of unlawful appointment. It came up when the judge rejected Attorney General Pam Bondi’s attempt to retroactively salvage Halligan’s appointment in October. Currie wrote that Bondi’s bid was too late because the statute of limitations to charge Comey with lying in his 2020 Senate testimony had expired in September. In a footnote, the judge observed that, as a general matter, indictments pause the statute of limitations, but not if they’re invalid to begin with.......

So, if Comey is charged again, the DOJ would argue that the law plainly gives the prosecution more time, while he would argue that time has already run out because it’s as if the Halligan-secured indictment never existed and it would be unfair to give prosecutors what amounts to an end-run around the statute of limitations.

The challenge Comey could face is that the law itself might provide for such an end-run. But the issue would need to be litigated more fully by the parties and decided by a judge examining it directly – if a new indictment comes.

If it does, then the statute of limitations is just one issue on top of the existing unresolved claims that Comey had raised prior to the dismissal, saying nothing of the hurdle that the DOJ would face in proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt at trial, if the case made it that far. And unless the government succeeds in pressing its promised appeal of Halligan’s disqualification, reviving the case would require the normally simple step of getting past a grand jury, something that has proved difficult for the Trump DOJ in political cases.

This case will never make it to a jury.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

1. I doubt they'll even find another GJ that's willing to indict, especially after this screw up.

Pedonald hires only the best of the best.