Comey’s lawyers say the prosecution pushed by Trump is a retaliatory measure and the case should be dropped

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — James Comey made another push to have his criminal case dismissed as his lawyers told a judge Wednesday that the prosecution was inappropriately vindictive and rooted in President Donald Trump’s hatred of the former FBI director.

“The President’s use of the Department of Justice to conduct a criminal prosecution against an outspoken and prominent critic in order to punish and deter those who speak out against him violates the Constitution,” attorney Michael Dreeben told U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff.

Read more: Judge rebukes Justice Department for ‘disturbing pattern of profound investigative errors’ in Comey case

The government’s case appears to be in jeopardy after another judge criticized the ministry earlier in the week. There are also multiple challenges seeking to dismiss the indictment.

Comey has pleaded not guilty to charges of making a false statement and obstruction of Congress and has denied any wrongdoing. He has disputed the legitimacy of the hastily appointed prosecutor who brought the Trump administration’s case and said he was targeted because of the Republican president’s personal animus against him, an argument being argued before Nachmanov.

The Justice Department denied that the prosecution was retaliatory or selective, insisting that the accusations supported the indictment.

Motions alleging retaliatory prosecution are often not successful. In calling for Comey’s dismissal, Comey’s lawyers described the case as a product of Trump’s quest for revenge. Trump fired Comey as FBI director in May 2017 while Comey was overseeing the FBI’s investigation into possible ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.

The two have been at loggerheads ever since, with Trump mocking Comey as a “weak, dishonest ball of goo” and calling for his impeachment.

Trump amplified these demands with a social media post in September, in which he complained to Attorney General Pam Bondi about the lack of action against his political opponents. “We cannot delay any longer, as this is killing our reputation,” Trump wrote, adding, “Justice must be done now!!!”

“If that’s not a prosecution directive, I’d be at a loss to say what is,” Dreeben said in court.

The night he took office, Trump said he would appoint Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience, as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Halligan replaces a veteran prosecutor who was effectively forced out of office after neither Comey nor another Trump foe, New York Attorney General Letitia James, was charged.

Halligan obtained an indictment against Comey days later as the statute of limitations in the case was about to expire.

Drippen said Halligan did “what she was asked to do.”

He also said the government “cannot use the power of criminal prosecutions to try to silence a critic who violates First Amendment rights.”

On Monday, US Judge William Fitzpatrick criticized Halligan for her handling of the case, citing what he said was a “troubling pattern of profound investigative errors” in the process of obtaining the indictment. It is not clear whether those errors, which Fitzpatrick said also included the Justice Department’s misrepresentations of the law to the grand jury, could have led to the indictment being dismissed.