White House vows appeal as Comey responds to tossed indictments

Watch White House vows appeal as Comey responds to tossed indictments - Straight Arrow News on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00New reaction this morning from the White House after that major legal setback.

00:07A federal judge tossing out the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey

00:12and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

00:14In her 29-page ruling, Judge Cameron McGowan-Curry ruled the indictments were invalid

00:20because the prosecutor who brought them, Lindsay Halligan, was unlawfully appointed,

00:25writing,

00:25All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan's defective appointment, including securing and signing

00:31Mr. Comey's indictment, constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside.

00:38There is simply no alternative course to cure the unconstitutional problem.

00:43In plain English, Halligan never had the authority to take these cases to a grand jury,

00:47meaning the charges cannot stand.

00:50A former Trump aide with no prior prosecutorial experience,

00:53Halligan was installed after career prosecutors reportedly pushed back on filing charges.

00:59She's then single-handedly secured both indictments, which became the basis for the judge's ruling.

01:04Comey reacted to the ruling Monday night in a video on Instagram.

01:08I'm grateful that the court ended the case against me, which was a prosecution

01:12based on malevolence and incompetence,

01:16and a reflection of what the Department of Justice has become under Donald Trump, which is heartbreaking.

01:21At the White House, Caroline Leavitt gave President Trump's reaction to the ruling

01:26and made it clear this is not the end of the road.

01:29His reaction was, we've seen this before.

01:32We've seen partisan judges take unprecedented steps to try to intervene in accountability before,

01:38but we're not going to give up.

01:39And I know that the Department of Justice intends to appeal these rulings very soon if they haven't already.

01:43And that appeal is key.

01:45For Letitia James, the government could still try to refile charges under a lawfully appointed prosecutor.

01:52For Comey, the timing is much tighter.

01:54His case bumped right up against the statute of limitations,

01:58and Judge Curry signaled that window has likely closed.