Justice Department faces hurdle in prosecuting Comey as judge finds constitutional problems

Justice Department violated the constitutional rights of a close friend of James Comey And he would have to turn over computer files that prosecutors had hoped to use for a possible criminal case against the former FBI director, a federal judge said Friday.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Koller-Cotelli’s decision not only represents a strong rebuke of Justice Department prosecutors’ conduct, but also represents a dramatic setback to government efforts to seek new indictments against Comey after the initial indictment was dismissed last month.

The order relates to computer files and communications that investigators obtained years ago from Daniel Richman, a Comey friend and Columbia University law professor, as part of a media leak investigation that concluded without charges. The Justice Department continued to retain those files and searched them this fall, without a new warrant, as they built a case accusing Comey of lying. Congress five years ago.

Richman alleged that the Justice Department violated his Fourth Amendment rights by retaining his records and conducting a new warrantless search of the files, leading Kollar-Kotelly to issue an order last week temporarily blocking prosecutors from accessing the files as part of its investigation.

The Justice Department said the request to return the records was merely an attempt to hinder Comey’s new prosecution, but the judge sided with Richman again in a 46-page order on Friday, directing the Justice Department to return his files.

“When the government violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures by combing through a wide range of an individual’s electronic files, retaining those files long after the relevant investigation has concluded, and later sifting through those files without a warrant to obtain evidence against someone else, what remedy is available to the victim of the government’s unlawful intrusion?” The judge wrote.

One answer, he said, is that the government needs to return the property to its rightful owner.

However, the judge allowed the Justice Department to file an electronic copy of Richman’s records under seal in the Eastern District of Virginia, where the Comey investigation is based, and suggested that prosecutors could later attempt to access it with a valid search warrant.

The Justice Department alleges that Comey used Richman to share information with the news media about his decision-making during the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Prosecutors in September charged the former FBI director with lying to Congress by denying that he authorized an aide to serve as an anonymous source for the media.

That indictment was dismissed last month when a federal judge in Virginia ruled that Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor who brought the case, was unlawfully appointed by the Trump administration. But the decision left open the possibility that the government could try again to bring charges against Comey, a longtime foe of the president. donald trumpComey has pleaded not guilty, denied making false statements and accused the Justice Department of retaliatory prosecution,

The Comey saga has a long history.

In 2017, he testified that he had given Richman a copy of a memo he had written documenting a conversation he had with Trump and had authorized him to share the memo’s contents with a reporter. Following that testimony, Richman allowed the FBI to make an image, or complete electronic copy, of all files on his computer and a hard drive attached to that computer.

Then, in 2019 and 2020, the FBI and Justice Department obtained search warrants to obtain Richman’s email accounts and computer files as part of a media leak investigation, which concluded without charges.

But Richman said the Justice Department violated his rights by searching his files in September, without a new warrant, as part of an entirely separate investigation.