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A big controversy over whether the former will be prosecuted or not FBI director James Comey Focusing on grand juries and how they work in secret to bring charges in US federal courts.
The US Justice Department acknowledged that there could be a problem in presenting Comey’s case to a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia. Comey wants the case dismissed on the grounds that the government is acting out of vendetta, among other objections.
Comey is accused of making false statements and obstructing Congress in 2020. He pleaded innocent and denied wrongdoing, saying it was a case of political vendetta by the President donald trump,
The case marked a dramatic escalation in the president’s extraordinary use of executive power to target his political rivals and his efforts to pressure the Justice Department to prosecute people he despises.
Here’s a primer on how grand juries work:
inherited from England
America’s grand jury system has roots dating back centuries EnglandWhere everyday people, independent of the king, were asked to decide whether someone had committed a crime.
Former federal prosecutor Mark Chutko said, “It was enshrined in our Constitution: No federal case can be charged without consideration by a federal grand jury.”
Matthew Schneider, a former U.S. attorney in Detroit, said the legal threshold for returning an indictment is lower than the standard for a jury to convict someone.
“They are not being asked to decide beyond a reasonable doubt whether a crime has been committed,” he said. “They are being asked if there is probable cause that a crime may have occurred.”
grand jury process
A grand jury consists of 16 to 23 people who meet in private. People A person summoned to federal court can receive sentences for months, although they are not in session every day.
A prosecutor presents evidence through witnesses and other means. Chutko said a judge does not participate unless there is a problem with a witness.
Grand juries are not required to reach a unanimous decision. Twelve votes are required to return an indictment.
Prosecutors and investigators, as well as grand jurors, are sworn to secrecy. People who are called as witnesses may speak publicly afterward, although authorities may discourage this.
And when prosecutors arrange proceedings, the grand jury can make its own request to see a witness or consider additional evidence, Chutko said.
Grand jurors have discretion
A New York State judge is famously credited with saying that a grand jury could “indict a ham sandwich”, meaning that prosecutors do not face much resistance in charging someone. But a grand jury may reject or perhaps limit an indictment based on the evidence.
Grand jurors in Washington have declined to return some indictments because the Trump administration deployed National Guard troops on the streets there. Critics of the Justice Department said the government was pursuing weak cases. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said, “The system here is broken on many levels,” and she blamed politics for the grand jury’s failure to indict the man accused of threatening the president.
What’s happening with the Comey case?
U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick said he reviewed a transcript and there were questions about whether the full grand jury had properly reviewed the two-count indictment against Comey. A Justice Department lawyer acknowledged Wednesday that the entire jury did not do so.
Comey’s attorney Michael Dribben said the government’s failure to present a final indictment to a full grand jury is grounds for dismissing the case. U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, who would oversee any trial, said he needed time to make a decision.