Justice Department says full grand jury in Comey case didn’t review copy of final indictment

ALEXANDRIA Va AP The Justice Department says the grand jury that charged former FBI Director James Comey was not presented with a copy of the final indictment Prosecutors made the acknowledgment under questioning Wednesday from the judge overseeing the incident Comey s lawyers disclosed that lapse was grounds for dismissal of the circumstance There was no immediate decision from the judge THIS IS A EMERGING NEWS UPDATE AP s earlier story follows below ALEXANDRIA Va AP James Comey made another run at getting his criminal occurrence dismissed as his lawyers reported a judge Wednesday that the prosecution was improperly vindictive and rooted in President Donald Trump s hatred of the former FBI director The president s use of the Department of Justice to bring a criminal prosecution against a vocal and prominent critic in order to punish and deter those who would speak out against him violates the Constitution lawyer Michael Dreeben explained U S District Judge Michael Nachmanoff The establishment s incident appears imperiled after a different judge excoriated the department earlier in the week There also are multiple challenges seeking dismissal of the indictment Comey has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of making a false message and obstructing Congress and has denied any wrongdoing He has contested the legitimacy of the hastily appointed prosecutor who filed the Trump administration s event and has explained he was singled out because of the Republican president s personal animus against him an argument being debated before Nachmanoff The Justice Department has denied that the prosecution was vindictive or selective and insists that the charges promotion the indictment Motions claiming vindictive prosecution are not often thriving In arguing for a dismissal Comey s lawyers describe the scenario as an outgrowth of Trump s quest for retribution Trump fired Comey as FBI director in May as Comey was overseeing an FBI review into promising ties between Russia and Trump s campaign The two have been publicly at odds ever since with Trump deriding Comey as a weak and untruthful slime ball and calling for his prosecution Trump amplified those demands with a September social media post in which he complained to Attorney General Pam Bondi about the lack of action against his political opponents We can t delay any longer it s killing our reputation Trump wrote adding that JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED NOW If this is not a direction to prosecute Dreeben disclosed in court I d really be at a loss to say what is The night of his post Trump reported he would appoint Lindsey Halligan a White House aide without prior prosecutorial experience as interim U S attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Halligan replaced a veteran prosecutor who was effectively forced from the job after not charging Comey or another Trump foe New York Attorney General Letitia James Halligan secured an indictment of Comey days later as the statute of limitations on the episode was about to expire Dreeben announced Halligan did what she was stated to do He also commented the regime cannot use the power of criminal prosecutions to attempt to silence a critic in violation of his First Amendment rights On Monday U S Magistrate William Fitzpatrick criticized Halligan for her handling of the episode citing what he announced was a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps in the process of securing the indictment It is not clear whether those mistakes which Fitzpatrick commented also included Justice Department misstatements of the law to the grand jury may end in the indictment s dismissal