Things are getting a little interesting in the James Comey case.
Like New York Attorney General Letitia James, Comey’s defense is trying to have the prosecuting attorney disqualified.
The reasoning… because the previous prosecutor declined to pursue the case, this appointment is illegal and unconstitutional.
Attorney General Pam Bondi was on the Hill this week to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she wound up in a joust with Ranking Member Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL).
When Bondi was accused of weaponizing the office, she replied, "I took office with two main goals: to end the weaponization of justice and return the department to its core mission of fighting violent crime.. While there is more work to do, I believe in eight short months we have made tremendous progress towards those ends."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) responded, "Our nation's top law enforcement agency has become a shield for the president and his political allies when they engage in misconduct. In eight short months, you fundamentally transformed the Justice Department and left an enormous stain on American history. It will take decades to recover."
Remember how happy Democrats were when the DOJ went after Trump? It sure is funny how they are reacting now to the shoe being on the other foot.
Like Comey, the case against New York Attorney General Letitia James is being considered as a revenge case by Trump.
An attorney who worked on James’ transition team, Ray Brescia, a professor at Albany Law School, contends, “James is charged with having engaged in mortgage fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
“The case appears to rest on flimsy and conflicting evidence at best, has been brought on grounds that are rarely prosecuted and was filed over the objection of career lawyers within the Justice Department who did not think there was probable cause to bring the case.”
So, prosecutors have her mortgage documents, which she clearly violated, then benefited with $19,000 to the plus column for having lied on her forms. It is not Trump money, but fraud is fraud, period.
The Comey case shares a strategy with the James case in that they are trying to have US Attorney Lindsey Halligan disqualified from the case.
Because her predecessor, Erik Siebert, did not want to pursue the cases, he was relieved and replaced. Comey’s team argued, "We think that’s an unlawful appointment.”
I don’t understand the logic if Bondi thought they had enough evidence, that is cause to relieve him for not doing his job, simply because he was afraid of appearances.
All that aside, the real challenge is the judge and the jury, and the DOJ is already swimming upstream on that front, having a liberal judge appointed to the Comey case. I think both cases are solid, but having said that, I would be pleasantly surprised if they win either of them.
