Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Gets Wrecked as Dismissal Tanks Comey Case

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

Looks like Trump AG Pam Bondi is responsible for having both the Former FBI Director James Comey and current NY AG Tish James indictments tossed today by a federal judge, along with Lindsey Halligan as interim US Attorney in Virginia. Michael Popok digs deep into Judge Currie’s earth-shattering twin rulings today, in which she rejects Bondi’s appointment of Halligan as illegal, and scoffs at Bondi’s last-minute series of retroactive ratification “memos” as she declares Halligan an illegal, non-prosecutor when she obtained the now dismissed indictments. Popok also explains who fills the immediate prosecutor vacancy (and it ain’t Trump); and what is likely to happen next in the cases with emergency appeals and social media attacks by Trump and his DOJ. Lola Blankets: Get 40% off your entire order at https://lolablankets.com by using code LEGALAF at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket with Lola Blankets. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast⁠ Legal AF: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af⁠ MissTrial: ⁠https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial⁠ The PoliticsGirl Podcast: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast⁠ Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan⁠ Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen⁠ The Weekend Show: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show⁠ Burn the Boats: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats⁠ Majority 54: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54⁠ Political Beatdown: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown⁠ On Democracy with FP Wellman: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman⁠ Uncovered: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak equipment modernization. We're fluent in data digitization and expansion into foreign markets. And we can talk all day about streamlining manufacturing processes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today.

We'd love to talk. Business. No, Judge Curry never bought what the Attorney General Pam Bondi was selling, never picked up what she was laying down, that she was able to ratify what Lindsay Halligan did as a U.S. attorney or a special attorney because she was able to look at a transcript that didn't exist. No, Judge Curry said, among other things, and for other reasons, I'm going to dismiss the indictments of both James Comey and Letitia James. and I'm going to bounce Lindsay Halligan as having been improperly, unconstitutionally, and illegally appointed in violation of the Appointments Clause,

in violation of 28 U.S.C. Section 546, and therefore everything that she did was what we call ultra-varees or against the law and void. Bye-bye indictments. Now, it means something different for James Comey, former FBI director, than it means for Letitia James.

Let me tell you up front, what's going to happen now, besides the inevitable emergency appeal by Donald Trump, besides the inevitable, you know, attempt to overturn what Judge Curry just did and to see if the United States Supreme Court decides to weigh in as well after the Fourth Circuit. Besides that, Judge Curry has declared that there's a vacancy in the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney's Office and step back, Pam Bondi and Donald Trump, you're not able to fill it because she has said in her,

order, it can only be filled at present, the vacancy, by the district court judges of the Eastern District of Virginia. Now, that's one of the reasons they brought her up from South Carolina because they didn't want her to have a conflict. So now the Eastern District of Virginia judges, if they're smart, and they are, they're going to get together, and they're going to appoint a U.S. attorney in lieu of Lindsay Halligan, which puts Judge Nakmanoff and Judge Walker in a weird position. Because even though the indictments have been dismissed, the criminal cases have not technically been closed yet, Nakmanoff has the case he's presiding over with James Comey and Judge Walker with Letitia James. I'm going to talk about that procedural twist in a minute. But you got the

headline. Now, that was the ruling by Judge Curry, not to be confused by the ruling that we're waiting on by Judge Nakmanoff in the Comey case, as to whether he's going to dismiss the indictment and close the criminal prosecution with prejudice once and for all because of... of an invalid, because of, sorry, vindictive prosecution by an abuse of power by Lindsey Allegan when she was acting as if she was the US attorney when she is not. Now you know why Judge Curry kept calling

Lindsay Allegan the indictment signer, the indictment signer, or the government counsel never called her by her title. That's gonna be decided by Nakmanoff sometime around between now, Thanksgiving, or just after. And it all has a major implication for Comey, because he's, his prosecution is out of time.

The statute of limitations has run. Judge Curry has already ruled that Lindsay Halligan was invalidly appointed, so she was never able to obtain that indictment. So there was no indictment, defective or otherwise, obtained within the statute of limitations of five years for a perjury charge against James Comey. And we're now, almost two months after that, there's no time. You cannot bring new charges with a new grand jury and a new prosecutor, even if that one's validly appointed or confirmed, because the statute of limitations on the perjury charge for James Comey has run. Letitia James is in a different boat.

I'm glad you're here. I might as touch network for me to kind of give you this drill down after you got the top line of the headline. I want to give you the more information, right? Letitia James's case is different. Lettisha James was indicted for mortgage fraud. It's a bullshit case. We all know it. There were two grand juries, the head of the major crimes unit.

Liz Uri was fired because she issued a memo that said, you can't indict her. There's no mortgage fraud here, which is automatically reasonable doubt. You had a grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia that didn't indict. You got a grand jury in Alexandria that did. It's a mess. But that's for another day because there's no statute of limitations issue. But at least we got rid of Lindsay Halligan. Donald Trump's hand-chosen prosecutor, right?

Let me read to you from the pages that I think are the most powerful within Judge Curry's orders. There's actually two orders, but they're almost identical, except one is in the Comey case and one is in the Letitia James case. Let's go to page, let's go to page 17. She's gone through one particular statute decides this, 28 U.S.C. Section 546. She says it's clear on its face. The president or the Department of Justice gets one pick for an interim U.S. attorney. After that, there's a split of power. President gets one pick.

After that, he gets to keep going and try to get his confirm nominee through the Senate, which he hasn't even put up anybody in the Eastern District of Virginia. There's nobody in the pipeline. But until then, the district court judges pick the U.S. attorney. And they tried to do a series of interim U.S. attorneys. They had a U.S. attorney. she resigned in the day of the inauguration. Eric Siebert was picked by Pam Bondi,

conservative Republican, but they fired him or forced him out because he refused to indict Comey and Letitia James. But that's it. It's a single-use ticket like at Disney. You don't get to come back to the next day. So he's gone. So they try to do it again.

Oh, another one. Lindsay Allegan, another 120 days, another 120 days. Another 120 days. And the judge says, no, you can't do that. You're doing it. And run around the appointment clause. The appointment clause says, you got to, you get to not.

but the Senate gets to confirm on advice and consent, you're a nominee. You can't do an end run around it, go in the back door and just keep appointing every 90 days somebody else. Oh, Lindsay Halligan didn't get it? Well, how is Lindsay Halligan even going to get the U.S. attorney position? She hasn't even been put up for it. So the judge says, no, you can't do it that way. So when she went through the history, she says on page 19, when an appointment.

violates the appointment's clause. From the jump, the actor has exercised power that she did not possess, citing to Justice Gorsuch and citing to Justice Thomas, an unconstitutionally appointed person, the government action taken by that erroneously claiming the mantle of executive power, and thus has taken no authority at all. That's how she characterizes it. She says on page 20 of her order, in light of these principles, I conclude that all action, flowing from Ms. Halligan's defective appointment, including securing and signing Mr. Comey's indictment, constitute unlawful exercises of executive power.

It must be set aside. There is simply no alternative course to cure the unconstitutional problem. She says on page 21, after citing a decision by the Office of Legal Counsel back in the Reagan days led by Sam Alito on the Supreme Court, siding with her position, She said that her appointment, Halligan, being appointed by Pam Bondi, was not a clerical error. And she can't use another statute to fix her problem now.

I got a secret. I'm obsessed with my Lola blanket. From the moment I pulled it out of the box, I could tell that this wasn't your average throw. The faux fur is unbelievably soft, like luxury level soft. And it just makes my space feel calm and biting. And put together, even here in Miami, I love redire. wrapping up with it at the end of a day. Watching a show with my family, answering emails, or just relaxing.

It's become part of my daily wind-down ritual. Honestly, I'm already thinking about replacing every other blanket I own with a Lola. It's no surprise, Lola is the world's number one blanket made with ultra-soft vegan faux fur and a signature four-way stretch. It's machine washable, no pilling, no shedding, and it stays flawless after every wash. It's the perfect gift, personal, beautiful, and something people actually use every day. Give the gift of softness this holiday season with Lola Blankets. For a limited time, our listeners are getting a huge 40% off their entire order at Lolablankets.com

by using Code LegalAF at checkout. Just head to Lolablankets.com and use code legal AF for 40% off. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show. and tell them that we sent you. She says on page 25, I've already concluded that Ms. Halligan's original appointment was invalid

and that the attorney's attempt to retroactively bestow special attorney status on her was also ineffective. She could not have authorized Ms. Halligan, Bondi, who was not an attorney for the government at the time. She wasn't even an attorney for the government to present Mr. Comey's indictment of the grand jury. You can't retroactively say somebody invalid is now valid.

She said it would mean, if the implications of a contrary conclusion are extraordinary. It would mean the government would send any private citizen off the street. That's what Lindsay Halligan's been reduced to. A private citizen off the street who's not an attorney to secure an indictment as long as the attorney general gives her approval after the fact. She also concludes that the position is open. There is no U.S. attorney.

They should now shut off her badge and her security badge at the door of the Department of Justice. and not let her in. There is a vacancy, and that vacancy can only be filled by the district court judges until a U.S. attorney is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate under 28 U.S.C. Section 541. It is so ordered. Cameron McGowan Curry, senior United States District Judge, she signed it from her chambers in Columbia, South Carolina, November 24th, 2025. What's going to happen next? It's going to happen next. Trump's going to take a Department of Justice is going to take an emergency besides the social media post. Oh, a liberal, crazy judge in

South Carolina who wasn't elected by a popular vote of the people, just ruled against our ability to the president's ability to appoint a U.S. attorney. Okay. Then, well, enough of that. Then they'll file an emergency application to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that sits over Virginia. I think that it's denied. 30, 2 to 1. Then they'll take an emergency shadow docket appeal. I think it goes through Chief Justice Roberts up to the United States Supreme Court. And then, you know, we're on the clock with the Supreme Court at that point. Are they going to do an administrative stay for a couple of days while they do some briefing schedule like they just did about the maps, the congressional maps, probably? Or they just reject it because they think it's very clear that under 546, the

president doesn't have that power. It's seen unlike other times when the Supreme Court side with Donald Trump. We're not talking about foreign affairs. We're not talking about taxes and tariffs. We're not talking about commander-in-chief powers. We're talking about a statute and the separation of powers related to that. Now, could they argue that that statute passed by Congress, which has been used for the last 30 years, 40 years, is somehow a violation of the separation of powers because it lets the judicial branch pick an executive branch officer? Maybe. Maybe. And we'll see. But that's what's going to happen next. We're going to see a major crisis show up again at the doorstep of the United States Supreme Court. This time it'll go through Chief Justice Roberts. So until my next report here and on Legal AF the YouTube channel on this fast-breaking story, there's so much it's going to happen over the next 72 hours, I assure you. Judge Nakmanoff is trying to decide whether the indictment should be dismissed for a vindictive prosecution in the Comey case. Judge Walker, the same thing in the Lettician James. case. Judge Nakmanoff already said he's going to make a ruling soon on that. There's also a motion

pending before Judge Nakutoff to get rid of the indictment because of the grand jury defects. The way that Lindsay Halligan, who is obviously illegally appointed, also screwed up her presentation and violated Comey's Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment, and Sixth Amendment rights. Question is, well, Nakmanoff say it's now moot because there's already been a prior ruling that Lindsay Halligan was improperly appointed and everything that flowed from her appointment is invalid. I think he goes in that direction. So we got that going on, right? And I think, hopefully I'll be able to report soon

that the district court judges get together and they appoint somebody and get a new U.S. attorney. And hopefully that U.S. attorney has some credibility, has some ethics, has some professionalism, and doesn't try to indict Letitia James and James Comey. Again, I think, until we end it this way,

my opinion, my professional opinion, is a James Comey's indictment, and criminal case is closed. That he's out of time. The Department of Justice is out of time on the statute of limitations on perjury. And the fact that there was an invalid indictment does not stop the clock. It doesn't let them fix their problem with a new prosecutor and a new grand jury. Letitia James, though, I think if they get another MAGA prosecutor in there, and it's getting harder in order for Donald Trump to make anything like that happen

with his slip on power, you know, slipping from his grip, then they might be able to re-indite her on mortgage fraud. But there's already bad evidence for the Department of Justice and great evidence for Letitia James about a prior grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia, that wouldn't indict her, and a major career prosecutor, head of the Major Crimes Division, who said she shouldn't be prosecuted, which is going to be part of the presentation to the jury. Reasonable doubt anyone?

I'm glad you're here. Hit the free subscribe button on Midas Touch. Do the same thing on Legal A.F. I'll see you at my next report. to update you on this fast-moving story. Can't get your fill of Legal A-F. Me neither. That's why we form the Legal A-F substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take,

whether it's a court filing or an oral argument, come over to the sub-stack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, morning A-F. What else? All the other contributors from Legal A-F are there as well. We got some new reporting.

We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast. And hot takes, wear legal A-F on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.