Justice Dept. says a court ruling is blocking efforts to re-indict Comey

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Justice Department lawyers said Tuesday that a recent ruling barring their access to key evidence has effectively crippled their efforts to reindict former FBI director James B. Comey, two weeks after their original case against him was dismissed.

The concession came in a court filing urging a federal judge in Washington to lift a temporary order she imposed Saturday restricting the government’s ability to review or use emails and other electronic communications seized as part of an investigation more than five years ago involving Comey confidante Daniel Richman.

Richman’s records had played a central role in the Justice Department’s effort to indict Comey on charges he lied during a 2020 congressional hearing about authorizing Richman to leak information to the media — allegations Comey has denied. Tuesday’s court filing raised new questions about prosecutors’ ability to pursue their case against the former FBI director.

Richman, a Columbia University law professor who briefly represented Comey as his attorney in 2017, has argued that the Justice Department’s current use of those files violates his constitutional rights. Justice Department officials wrote Tuesday that without access to the communications between the two men the government is “effectively enjoined … from investigating or prosecuting Comey.”

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