Judge Cameron McGowan Currie clearly has more than enough on her plate this holiday week without having to referee this kind of spectacle. As The New York Times reports:
Judge Currie ruled Monday to dismiss the two charges against [former FBI director James] Comey, writing: “I agree with Mr. Comey that the attorney general’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid. And because Ms. Halligan had no lawful authority to present the indictment, I will grant Mr. Comey’s motion and dismiss the indictment without prejudice.” She made a similar finding in the case against Ms. James.
Most federal judges are understandably wary of being cast in a starring role in a public farce—unless it’s after hours and strictly for laughs at a colleague’s retirement party. Early on, Currie appears to have recognized that she was being positioned as one of the main performers in a staged drama built around the president’s obsession with retribution. On Monday, she declined the role.
In her ruling, Judge Currie effectively accused Mr. Trump and his attorney general, Ms. Bondi, of skirting the law in the way Ms. Halligan was installed to run one of the nation’s most consequential U.S. attorney’s offices. She noted that both Ms. Halligan and her predecessor, Erik S. Siebert, were serving only in an interim capacity. Under the statute, however, the attorney general may appoint just one interim U.S. attorney for a limited 120-day term, Currie explained.
“It would mean the government could send any private citizen off the street—attorney or not—into the grand jury room to secure an indictment so long as the attorney general gives her approval after the fact,” she wrote. “That cannot be the law.”
