Judge scolds Justice Department for ‘profound investigative missteps’ in Comey case

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON AP The Justice Department engaged in a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps when it secured an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey a federal judge ruled Monday in directing prosecutors to produce to defense lawyers all grand jury materials from the situation Related Articles NIH funding cuts have affected over people enrolled in experiments a new document says In reversal Trump says House Republicans should vote to release Epstein files One issue is uniting Americans in a time of polarization according to a new poll families urge president to force Saudi prince to accept blame for attacks Trump appeals trial loss over Portland troop deployment plan Those problems wrote Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick include fundamental misstatements of the law by a prosecutor to a grand jury that indicted Comey in September the use of potentially privileged communications in the research and unexplained irregularities in the transcript of the grand jury proceedings The Court recognizes that the relief sought by the defense is rarely granted Fitzpatrick wrote However the record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding The -page opinion is the the greater part blistering assessment yet by a judge of a criminal matter against Comey that is already subject to multiple other challenges including motions seeking its dismissal on the grounds that the interim U S attorney who filed the charges Lindsey Halligan was illegally appointed and that the prosecution itself constitutes a vindictive prosecution Comey s lawyers had sought the grand jury materials out of concerns that irregularities in the process may have tainted the circumstance The sole prosecutor who defense lawyers say presented the episode to the grand jury was Halligan a former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience who was appointed to the job just days earlier