No. of Recommendations: 7
...Judge Fitzpatrick’s decision to force the government to hand over grand jury material to Mr. Comey’s lawyers was a significant development. The move will allow the defense to scrutinize exactly how Ms. Halligan characterized the evidence against Mr. Comey when she showed up for what was her first ever appearance in front of a grand jury.
In court papers, the lawyers have already accused Ms. Halligan of committing “irregularities so severe and pervasive” in front of the grand jury “that they likely prejudiced the grand jurors’ narrow decision to indict.”
In the papers, they cited some of Ms. Halligan’s rookie errors, pointing out how she had kept the grand jurors in the courthouse “well past normal business hours” after they had failed to endorse one of the three original counts she was seeking. The lawyers also noted that Ms. Halligan confusingly signed two different versions of the indictment.
Moreover, the lawyers argued that the grand jury process was potentially tainted because the F.B.I. agent who testified might have improperly shared privileged communications between Mr. Comey and one of his lawyers — some of which seems to have emerged from the disputed trove of materials in the leak investigation, known as Arctic Haze.
“All available information regarding Ms. Halligan’s first-ever grand jury presentation smacks of irregularity,” the lawyers wrote. “It is virtually unheard-of for a brand new prosecutor to make her first grand jury presentation alone, without the supervision and guidance of an experienced prosecutor to ensure the absence of factual and legal errors.”
Judge Fitzpatrick, who seemed exasperated with the government’s approach, described the case as “unusual,” adding, “We are in a little bit of a posture of indict first, investigate second” — drawing a sharp glance from an otherwise impassive Ms. Halligan...
——New York Times
