The nightmare continues for Trump’s targeted prosecutions as a judge blocks Comey evidence after a grand jury defeat

Federal prosecutors targeting James Comey just ran into another massive roadblock after a federal judge temporarily blocked them from accessing key evidence, making an already convoluted criminal case even more difficult. This is a tough blow for the Department of Justice, especially since the Trump administration is expected to try to re-indict the former FBI director.

On Saturday, Federal District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a four-page order preventing prosecutors from using materials taken from Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law school professor who has represented Comey as an attorney. The order blocking access to the files will remain in effect until December 12, per The Guardian.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly determined that the government’s actions likely violated Richman’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.

Trump is losing Comey one day at a time

The core issue centers on how the government handled evidence it seized years ago. Prosecutors allege Comey lied to Congress about whether or not he authorized leaks, and they were relying on private communications between Comey and Richman to support their claims.

However, those materials weren’t obtained through a standard recent warrant. Between 2017 and 2020, while the government was investigating Comey, they obtained multiple warrants to search an image of Richman’s computer. Neither Richman nor Comey was charged with a crime as part of that investigation, which officially closed in 2021.

Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick, who is overseeing the Comey case, wrote a searing opinion in November pointing out the government’s highly questionable retention practices. He noted that even though the initial investigation was over, the government appears to have retained all the information they obtained from Richman, not just the data that was responsive to the original warrant.

When the new investigation into Comey started this year, the government didn’t bother to get a new warrant to search the materials they had already retained. Judge Fitzpatrick wrote that they conducted a warrantless search of that information earlier this year. This allowed the government to potentially view materials protected by the attorney-client privilege, which is exactly why Richman sued the government in November, arguing that the government unlawfully accessed materials from his computer.

The decision blocking access to Richman’s files comes amid a string of high-profile defeats for the US Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which is handling the Comey prosecution. Just last Thursday, those same prosecutors sought to obtain a new indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James. She is another political rival of President Trump, whom the administration has targeted with specious allegations of mortgage fraud.

In an extremely rare move, a federal grand jury in Virginia declined to approve that indictment. That’s a huge political defeat, and combined with Judge Kollar-Kotelly blocking the key evidence against Comey, it paints a difficult picture for the administration’s legal strategy against rivals.

Comey has vehemently denied doing anything wrong regarding the leaks. A federal judge previously dismissed the charges against him, ruling that the prosecutor handling the case was improperly appointed. Despite that previous dismissal and the current constitutional issues with the evidence, the second Trump administration’s Justice Department is still expected to try to re-indict him. You can bet they’re feeling the pressure now that their key evidence has been sidelined.