It’s early yet in the James Comey case, but the former FBI director got a quick win on a procedural issue that reinforces the presiding judge’s refusal to allow needless delay in the criminal case against the Donald Trump critic brought by a Trump-installed prosecutor.
That reinforcement came from U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, who rejected the Justice Department’s motion for a protective order that would’ve limited Comey’s access to discovery. The judge wrote that the Trump DOJ’s proposal “would unnecessarily hinder and delay Defendant’s ability to adequately prepare for trial.”
In a two-page order explaining his decision Monday, Nachmanoff, a Biden appointee sitting in the Eastern District of Virginia, noted that prior high-profile false statement cases didn’t have the sort of limitations the government proposed here. The judge added that the DOJ proposal didn’t sufficiently detail the information purportedly needing protection, thus making the request overbroad.
Though the decision on this one discrete issue doesn’t dictate how the case will end (heftier pretrial motions to dismiss are due later this month), its on-task tone is in keeping with the one Nachmanoff set at Comey’s arraignment last week, where the former lawman pleaded not guilty to the two-count indictment secured by former Trump personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan, over the objection of career prosecutors: one count for allegedly lying to Congress and another for allegedly obstructing Congress. At the arraignment, Nachmanoff approved a swift litigation schedule featuring a Jan. 5 trial date, which the judge said he had been prepared to set even sooner had the defense requested a December start date.
So whatever Halligan’s plan for the case is — to the extent she has one, not having prosecuted a case before — delay shouldn’t be a part of it. Just before Comey’s arraignment, she brought in two DOJ lawyers from North Carolina who have prosecuted cases before. She similarly secured an indictment last week against New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose prosecution Trump also called for like he did Comey’s. James is due to appear in court Oct. 24.
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This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
