Lindsey Halligan was appointed after President Donald Trump urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute the former FBI director and New York attorney general.
The cases were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they can be refiled at a later date.
Five days after the post, Halligan, who had no prosecutorial experience, presented the Comey case to a grand jury. The presentation came days before a five-year statute of limitations on the charges was set to expire.
How does the statute of limitations work after a case is dismissed? Are they still allowed to refile?
IIRC, an indictment that’s thrown out for procedural errors has 6 months from the SoL expiration to fix the indictment, so long as the original indictment was made before the SoL expired.
With the question of whether or not the grand jury actually agreed to indict or just the foreman, the more interesting question is whether or not there even is an original indictment to be fixed.
As with many issues surrounding this administration, I don’t know if we have precedent on something like this. The way they stack up their fuckups on top of each other and make everything legally hazy means they’re either the worst attorneys in America or are really clever. Or, more likely, someone really clever knows how to use one of the worst attorneys in America in an attempt to buy 6 more months to come up with something to justify charging Comey.
Also, they can also now pretend he did something wrong but got off on a technicality. Now that it’s thrown out on procedural grounds, they don’t have to show their lack of evidence.
I agree that they won’t be refiled, and that MAGA will probably act like it’s some conspiracy, that the rulings were fake or something, just like any election that MAGA doesn’t win must be fake.
One other reason that they won’t be refiled is that these cases have now been analyzed in public pretty thoroughly now. Any lawyer who is offered the job now knows for sure how high profile it is, and as a result, how likely they are to face some consequences for their actions.
It really depends on whether Trump remembers he hates Comey and James and starts barking orders to just get it done and if he remembers later that he barked those orders.
There was no true bill returned by the grand jury, and nobody in charge with legitimate authority to bring an indictment anyway, so that’s two reasons that there was no indictment. So in the case of Comey, since the statute of limitations was two days from expiring when the non-charges were brought, DOJ is shit out of luck.
They’ll probably take another run at Tish James, though.
That’s probably accurate that there wasn’t a true bill, but it’s one of those things that I don’t think has actually been tested.
The specific circumstances where the foreman signed off on the second indictment with 2 charges instead of 3 without the rest of the grand jury suing the exact bill is really weird. But if it weren’t for the statue of limitations it would be an easy remedy - just take it back to the grand jury.
And if it were a different technical error, there’s a 6- month period after the SoL in which an indictment that’s thrown out of techical grounds can be corrected.
But the combination of the 2 is unprecedented as far as I know, and there’s a legitimate legal question as to whether it’s a bad indictment that should be thrown on on technical grounds (giving 6 months to re-file) or if it simply wasn’t an indictment at all.
And now with the whole thing being thrown out because Halligan isn’t actually a US Attorney, it’s even more confusing - especially when it comes to prosecutorial misconduct she may not have committed since she wasn’t actually a prosecutor.
I am still confused why the judge didn’t clarify the matter. They said to roll back the situation to before the effort was made, but if we take that literally, then basic math says Comey is safe now, and if he is, then his dismissal was effectively with prejudice.
I would think statute of limitations refers to date of infraction so it shouldn’t matter. This would be refilling so therefore not allowed. At least that was my take from the LegalEagle episode about it.
Obligatory I am not a lawyer, but in my reading of the applicable statute, the indictment can be refiled within 6 months of the dismissal, and not an additional 6 months after the statute of limitations expires. While this might seem similar to what the other posters said, this allows prosecutors to prepare on a much longer timescale (6 months vs the ~week they had for the original indictment after Trump fired the AG for the District) AND also allows them to continue to refile even if the indictment is dismissed again (e.g., their incompetence results in another dismissal).
The bigger point is whether there was an indictment at all, if the person who brought it had no legal authority to do so, and if the whole of the grand jury didn’t actually vote on it anyway.
There are about eight grounds for dismissing the whole case. There won’t be coming back from all of them.
How does the statute of limitations work after a case is dismissed? Are they still allowed to refile?
IIRC, an indictment that’s thrown out for procedural errors has 6 months from the SoL expiration to fix the indictment, so long as the original indictment was made before the SoL expired.
With the question of whether or not the grand jury actually agreed to indict or just the foreman, the more interesting question is whether or not there even is an original indictment to be fixed.
As with many issues surrounding this administration, I don’t know if we have precedent on something like this. The way they stack up their fuckups on top of each other and make everything legally hazy means they’re either the worst attorneys in America or are really clever. Or, more likely, someone really clever knows how to use one of the worst attorneys in America in an attempt to buy 6 more months to come up with something to justify charging Comey.
Also, they can also now pretend he did something wrong but got off on a technicality. Now that it’s thrown out on procedural grounds, they don’t have to show their lack of evidence.
I agree that they won’t be refiled, and that MAGA will probably act like it’s some conspiracy, that the rulings were fake or something, just like any election that MAGA doesn’t win must be fake.
One other reason that they won’t be refiled is that these cases have now been analyzed in public pretty thoroughly now. Any lawyer who is offered the job now knows for sure how high profile it is, and as a result, how likely they are to face some consequences for their actions.
Now now. One big reason they might still be refiled is the need for a distraction. ^Trump diddle little kids^ NEW GRAND JURY PULLED IN COMEY CASE!!
You’re giving way too much credit to the reasoning behind these moves.
These are just about ego of one man, and control.
It really depends on whether Trump remembers he hates Comey and James and starts barking orders to just get it done and if he remembers later that he barked those orders.
There was no true bill returned by the grand jury, and nobody in charge with legitimate authority to bring an indictment anyway, so that’s two reasons that there was no indictment. So in the case of Comey, since the statute of limitations was two days from expiring when the non-charges were brought, DOJ is shit out of luck.
They’ll probably take another run at Tish James, though.
That’s probably accurate that there wasn’t a true bill, but it’s one of those things that I don’t think has actually been tested.
The specific circumstances where the foreman signed off on the second indictment with 2 charges instead of 3 without the rest of the grand jury suing the exact bill is really weird. But if it weren’t for the statue of limitations it would be an easy remedy - just take it back to the grand jury.
And if it were a different technical error, there’s a 6- month period after the SoL in which an indictment that’s thrown out of techical grounds can be corrected.
But the combination of the 2 is unprecedented as far as I know, and there’s a legitimate legal question as to whether it’s a bad indictment that should be thrown on on technical grounds (giving 6 months to re-file) or if it simply wasn’t an indictment at all.
And now with the whole thing being thrown out because Halligan isn’t actually a US Attorney, it’s even more confusing - especially when it comes to prosecutorial misconduct she may not have committed since she wasn’t actually a prosecutor.
It’s a fascinating train-wreck.
I am still confused why the judge didn’t clarify the matter. They said to roll back the situation to before the effort was made, but if we take that literally, then basic math says Comey is safe now, and if he is, then his dismissal was effectively with prejudice.
I believe they still have to abide by the SoL. So… By Monday or something?
Correct. Bringing the charge didn’t reset the timer or a criminal case could be near perpetual by simply being dismissed and refiled.
Good question. There must be some limit, otherwise you could use refiling as a loophole to keep extending the limitations forever.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that loophole is in our laws
I would think statute of limitations refers to date of infraction so it shouldn’t matter. This would be refilling so therefore not allowed. At least that was my take from the LegalEagle episode about it.
Obligatory I am not a lawyer, but in my reading of the applicable statute, the indictment can be refiled within 6 months of the dismissal, and not an additional 6 months after the statute of limitations expires. While this might seem similar to what the other posters said, this allows prosecutors to prepare on a much longer timescale (6 months vs the ~week they had for the original indictment after Trump fired the AG for the District) AND also allows them to continue to refile even if the indictment is dismissed again (e.g., their incompetence results in another dismissal).
The bigger point is whether there was an indictment at all, if the person who brought it had no legal authority to do so, and if the whole of the grand jury didn’t actually vote on it anyway.
There are about eight grounds for dismissing the whole case. There won’t be coming back from all of them.