Judge scolds Justice Department for ‘profound investigative missteps’ in Comey case

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON AP The Justice Department engaged in a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps when it secured an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey a federal judge ruled Monday in directing prosecutors to produce to defense lawyers all grand jury materials from the matter Related Articles In reversal Trump says House Republicans should vote to release Epstein files Trump scraps tariffs on beef coffee tropical fruit in a push to lower grocery store prices At Trump s urging Bondi says US will investigate Epstein s ties to Clinton and other political foes Trump administration repealing protections for key swaths of Alaska petroleum reserve Top Fannie Mae functionaries ousted after sounding alarm on sharing confidential housing records Those problems wrote Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick include fundamental misstatements of the law by a prosecutor to a grand jury that indicted Comey in September the use of potentially privileged communications in the inspection and unexplained irregularities in the transcript of the grand jury proceedings The Court recognizes that the relief sought by the defense is rarely granted Fitzpatrick wrote However the record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding The -page opinion is the bulk blistering assessment yet by a judge of a criminal incident against Comey that is already subject to multiple other challenges including motions seeking its dismissal on the grounds that the interim U S attorney who filed the charges Lindsey Halligan was illegally appointed and that the prosecution itself constitutes a vindictive prosecution Comey s lawyers had sought the grand jury materials out of concerns that irregularities in the process may have tainted the scenario The sole prosecutor who defense lawyers say presented the incident to the grand jury was Halligan a former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience who was appointed to the job just days earlier