The Department of Justice announced it would appeal a judge's decision to dismiss the cases against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney Letitia James, insisting that the prosecutor ruled unlawfully appointed by the court remains on the job, Axios reported over the weekend.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday he expects the government to win the appellate review.
The appeal comes as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan and Justice Department lawyers have twice failed to secure a new indictment against James, according to CBS News.
Blanche defended Halligan, saying she is "still doing a great job" despite a court ruling that she was not lawfully acting in that role, Axios reported.
U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie ruled that Halligan's appointment as interim U.S. attorney violated federal law and the Constitution's Appointments Clause and ordered the criminal charges brought against Comey and James to be dismissed, CBS News reported.
"I conclude that all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan's defective appointment, including securing and signing Mr. Comey's indictment, constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside," Currie wrote in her opinion in the Comey case, the same argument she made in the ruling in the James case.
Republican leadership has accused judges of a "campaign of bias and hostility" against the former Trump attorney, according to Axios.
While the attorney general may choose an interim U.S. attorney to serve for 120 days, attorneys opposing Trump's decision argued that the window had already expired — an opinion with which the judge agreed.
But the administration has insisted that Halligan is both qualified for and was legally appointed to the post.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.