Justice Department could present a new indictment against James Comey to a grand jury this week

By Katelyn Polantz, Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — The Justice Department could present a new indictment against James Comey to a grand jury as soon as this week.

People familiar with the situation inside the Justice Department believe whatever comes next may happen quickly, and that no matter what, prosecutors will likely present new indictments against the former FBI director and New York Attorney General Letitia James to grand juries in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The previous cases against Comey and James were dismissed last week after a judge found that interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan didn’t have the authority of a prosecutor when the indictments were returned in late September and early October.

Comey had previously pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied to Congress five years ago. James pleaded not guilty to mortgage fraud-related charges.

After the dismissals of their cases, FBI Director Kash Patel said over the weekend that “multiple responses” could come as early as “right after Thanksgiving” in the dismissed case against Comey.

Grand juries sit multiple times a week regularly in the Alexandria federal courthouse, and less frequently in Norfolk, where James’ charges were centered around.

During an interview Saturday with the right-wing media outlet Epoch Times, Patel was asked for his reaction to the case against Comey being dismissed.

“We the FBI, and our partners at the DOJ, have numerous options to proceed, and we’re executing on all those options,” Patel said. “So we’re not done.”

“I would say stay tuned for right after Thanksgiving and you’ll see multiple responses, in my opinion,” he added.

To appeal or not to appeal

Comey’s congressional obstruction charges were dismissed last week by a trial-level judge reviewing Halligan’s authority.

Cameron McGowan Currie found that Halligan didn’t have the authority to be the Eastern District of Virginia’s US Attorney because she hadn’t been confirmed by the Senate or sworn in by the district’s judges. The judge also decided the indictments against James and Comey, which she alone secured from Alexandria-based grand juries, were invalid.

The White House press secretary and the Attorney General both said an appeal of the ruling, which would put the two criminal cases before the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, was imminent, yet the Justice Department hasn’t notified the court that it plans to appeal as of Monday afternoon.

According to federal procedural rules, the Justice Department has 30 days –meaning the week of Christmas – to notify the court of its intention to appeal.

The Justice Department could decide it wants to try again to secure a grand jury’s approval of charges against Comey, before deciding whether to appeal.

Comey’s legal defense team has several ways lined up to potentially challenge a re-indicted case him again, if it were to be revived.

Comey’s lead defense counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement last week that the judge’s decision to dismiss the case “indicates that because the indictment is void, the statute of limitations has run and there can be no further indictment.”

Comey’s team is likely to maintain that legal position going forward, arguing that any charges he might face related to his September 2020 congressional testimony would now come outside of the five-year window, called a statute of limitations, that the Justice Department had to bring a case.

Currie, in her opinion last week, indicated in a footnote she agreed with that argument, saying that everything Halligan did before the grand jury was invalid, including her presentation to the grand jury.

But the Justice Department appears to believe it might still revive the case under another law that could allow several months to charge the case again, essentially elongating the statute of limitations for Comey into spring 2026, sources have told CNN.

What’s next for Letitia James?

As for the James mortgage fraud case, it too could be revived — and doesn’t face the same possible issues around a statute of limitations window closing.

James’ lawyers were at the beginning stages of challenging the specifics of her indictment and would likely continue opposing any case that was brought under Halligan.

James’ defense lawyer Abbe Lowell has also represented another client challenging a different interim US Attorney’s ability to serve without Senate confirmation. After the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals decided on Monday that Alina Habba is not the acting US Attorney for New Jersey, handing Lowell a win there, he to vowed carry forward cases challenging prosecutors in the Justice Department.

“We will continue to challenge President Trump’s unlawful appointments of purported U.S. Attorneys wherever appropriate,” Lowell said.

A spokesperson for Lowell declined to comment further on what may be next in James’ case.

Some legal experts are closely watching exactly how the Justice Department moves forward, and the level of involvement Halligan would have in the cases, now that a trial-level judge said she had been unlawfully appointed.

“They can reindict. The question is who can do it. They’ll have to have a different person managing that indictment process,” said John Day, a Nashville defense lawyer and current president of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an organization that recognizes preeminent trial lawyers.

Day said he believed the most legally sound move the Justice Department could make would be one the Trump administration isn’t making: Having Halligan step down.

“It’s a procedural morass. The uncertainty that all of these machinations have created is sort of alarming,” Day said. “It’s all in this place because the administration has decided it does not want to proceed under normal order.”

CNN’s Evan Perez and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.