In a significant legal development, cases brought by Donald Trump against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James have been dismissed. The dismissal comes after Judge Cameron Currie accused Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s chosen attorney, of “prosecutorial misconduct.” Halligan, described as a former White House aide with no prosecutorial background, was deemed ineligible for her role, according to Currie.

The controversy stems from the fact that a 120-day deadline for interim appointments had lapsed under the previous prosecutor, Pam Bondi, rendering her appointment of Halligan invalid. The authority to appoint Halligan rested with the district’s federal judges. Judge Currie, appointed by Bill Clinton, stated, “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.” Both Comey and James had sought the dismissal of their cases and the disqualification of Halligan due to her appointment process.

In these separate legal matters, the defendants requested that the indictments be dismissed with prejudice, meaning the Justice Department would be prohibited from re-filing the same charges. Judge Currie complied with this request, dismissing the cases with prejudice. Comey faced charges of making false statements and obstructing a congressional proceeding linked to his 2020 Senate testimony, where he allegedly denied authorizing FBI leaks to the media. James was accused of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution, concerning supposedly falsified mortgage application details.

Halligan, a former beauty queen, was named to the job of interim US Attorney for Virginia in September. Before her appointment, Erik Siebert, a different interim attorney, was forced out amid pressure from Trump to file charges against his political enemies. Comey’s lawyers argued that after Siebert was forced out, the judges should have had exclusive say over who would fill the vacancy. But it was ultimately Trump who moved forward and nominated Halligan as he publicly pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against Comey and James.

‘JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. Comey was indicted days later on charges of making a false statement and obstructing Congress, and James was charged soon after that in a mortgage fraud investigation. In a statement, James said, ‘I am heartened by today’s victory and grateful for the prayers and support I have received from around the country.’

‘I remain fearless in the face of these baseless charges as I continue fighting for New Yorkers every single day,’ the New York attorney general, a Democrat, said. Judges have separately disqualified interim US attorneys in New Jersey, Los Angeles and Nevada, but have permitted cases brought under their watch to move forward. But lawyers for Comey and James had argued that Currie’s ruling needed to go even further because Halligan was the sole signer of the indictments and the driving force behind them.

Comey has for years been one of Trump’s chief antagonists. Appointed to the job in 2013 by President Barack Obama, Comey, at the time of Trump’s 2016 election, was overseeing an investigation into whether his presidential campaign had conspired with Russia to sway the outcome of the race. Furious over that investigation, Trump fired Comey in May 2017 and the two officials have verbally sparred in the years since.

James has also been a frequent target of Trump’s ire, especially since she won a staggering judgment against him and the Trump Organization in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements. An appeals court overturned the fine, which had ballooned to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a lower court’s finding that Trump had committed fraud.