A federal judge blocks Justice Department efforts to obtain a new indictment against Comey

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has dealt a setback to the Justice Department’s efforts to obtain a new indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, temporarily barring prosecutors from using evidence they relied on when they initially obtained criminal charges.

The ruling issued Saturday night by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly does not prevent the department from trying to charge Comey again soon, but it suggests that prosecutors may have to do so without pointing to communications between Comey and a close friend, Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman.

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Comey was charged in September with lying to Congress when he denied allowing an aide to serve as an anonymous source for FBI coverage. In pursuing the case, prosecutors cited messages between Comey and Richman that they said showed Comey approved of Richman’s interaction with reporters on some FBI-related coverage.

The case was dismissed last month after a different federal judge ruled that the prosecutor who brought the charges, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed by the Trump administration. But the ruling left open the possibility that the government could again try to bring charges against Comey, a longtime foe of President Donald Trump. Comey has pleaded not guilty, denied making a false statement and accused the Justice Department of conducting a retaliatory prosecution.

After the case was dropped, Richman’s lawyers sought a court order to prevent prosecutors from continuing to access his computer files, which the Justice Department obtained through search warrants in 2019 and 2020 as part of an investigation into a media leak that was later closed without charges.

Officials searched the files for communications between Comey and Richman that they could use to build the case against Comey. But Richman and his lawyers say prosecutors exceeded the scope of the warrants, illegally retained communications they should have destroyed or returned, and conducted new searches of the data without a warrant.

Kollar Koteli on Saturday night granted Richman’s request for a temporary restraining order, instructing the department “not to access covered material once it has been identified, separated and secured, or to share, disseminate or disclose covered material to any person, without first seeking and obtaining permission from this court.”

The Justice Department was given until Monday afternoon to confirm its compliance with the order. She said her order will remain in effect until next Friday, “or until resolved by further order of this court, whichever comes first.”

“Petitioner Richman has also shown that, absent an injunction, he would be irreparably harmed by the continued violation of his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures arising from the government’s continued retention of his computer image and related materials,” she wrote in granting Richman’s motion.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment Sunday on the ruling and what it means for the reinstatement of charges against Comey.

It is not clear whether the Justice Department could secure new charges against Comey even if it could rely on Richman’s connections. Comey’s lawyers have said the statute of limitations in such a case — the congressional testimony in question was filed on September 30, 2020, or more than five years ago — has expired.

A separate attempt by the Justice Department to file a new indictment against New York’s Letitia James, another potential Trump opponent who was also indicted by Halligan, failed last week when a grand jury refused to sign on to the charges.