{"id":28258,"date":"2025-12-26T21:26:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T21:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=28258"},"modified":"2025-12-26T21:26:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T21:26:22","slug":"judge-rules-doj-needs-warrant-for-dismissed-files-in-comey-case-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=28258","title":{"rendered":"Judge Rules DOJ Needs Warrant For Dismissed Files In Comey Case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This article may contain commentary
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A federal judge has ordered prosecutors to return evidence seized from a key figure in the dismissed criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey, while allowing the Justice Department to seek a new warrant for the material.<\/p>\n

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U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled in Washington that files taken from Daniel Richman \u2014 a law professor and former attorney for Comey \u2014 must be returned. However, the court may retain a copy of the materials for safekeeping should prosecutors pursue a new warrant,\u00a0Reuters reported over the weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The decision represents a temporary setback for the Justice Department as it considers whether to renew efforts to bring charges against Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump in May 2017, during his first term.<\/p>\n

Richman filed suit last month seeking to block prosecutors from using materials he said were improperly seized during an investigation conducted in 2019 and 2020. Kollar-Kotelly\u2019s ruling allows the government to preserve access to the records under court supervision while complying with the order to return them.<\/p>\n

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The investigation concluded in 2021 without charges. In her ruling, released Friday night, Kollar-Kotelly said it was unreasonable for the government to retain copies of Richman\u2019s files without safeguards preventing them from being searched in a future investigation absent a valid warrant.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the judge declined to bar the Justice Department from using or relying on the information in the future. She said prosecutors are permitted to pursue investigative leads derived from their prior review of the materials and may seek a new warrant to obtain them again.<\/p>\n

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Prosecutors relied on the seized files earlier this year as part of their case against Comey. The former FBI director was indicted in October on charges of making false statements and obstructing Congress, stemming from his 2020 testimony regarding FBI officials\u2019 anonymous disclosures of information to news outlets.<\/p>\n

Last month, a federal judge dismissed the criminal cases against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after determining that both indictments were obtained by an unlawfully appointed U.S. attorney in Virginia\u2019s Eastern District.<\/p>\n

Since then, two more grand juries have refused to re-indict James, which is highly unusual.<\/p>\n

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FBI Director Kash Patel\u00a0said two weeks ago<\/a>\u00a0that he does not consider the prosecution of Comey to be over following the court\u2019s dismissal of the perjury charge against him for allegely lying to Congress.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Patel told senior editor Jan Jekielek that the Trump administration had \u201cnumerous options to proceed\u201d against Comey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judicial process can make whatever determination it wants, but we at the FBI and our partners at the DOJ have numerous options to proceed, and we\u2019re executing on all those options,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n

When pressed for more details, Patel noted, \u201cI would say stay tuned for right after Thanksgiving and you\u2019ll see multiple responses, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patel dropped even more bombshells about the infamous \u201cburn bags.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to see everything we found in that room, in one way or another, be it through investigation, public trial, or disclosure to the Congress,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the single largest weaponization, politicization of law enforcement against America, and specifically targeting a political party, because the institutional elite in Washington, D.C., didn\u2019t like them and didn\u2019t want them to win,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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