OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
2:09 PM – Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed to immediately appeal a judge’s recent decision to toss out criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also confirmed the DOJ’s intent to appeal, describing the ruling as an attempt to “shield” the defendants. The appeal would go to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — potentially escalating to the Supreme Court on questions of appointment authority.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, a Clinton appointee, ruled this week that U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan of the Eastern District of Virginia had been “unlawfully appointed” by Bondi — citing a “violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA).”
“We’ll be taking all available legal action, including an immediate appeal, to hold Letitia James and James Comey accountable for their unlawful conduct,” Bondi said during a press conference on Monday.
Bondi also emphasized that Comey’s alleged “actions were a betrayal of public trust.”
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Earlier on Monday, as Judge Currie dismissed both indictments, he sided with Comey’s defense, claiming that Halligan, who brought the cases, had been unlawfully appointed — thus making the indictments “invalid.”
Halligan is a former insurance lawyer who was involved in one of the criminal cases brought against President Donald Trump by former special counsel Jack Smith. Halligan took both the Comey and James cases to a grand jury in October — weeks after Bondi installed her as acting U.S. Attorney.
The move came after the previous acting U.S. Attorney, Erik Siebert, resigned. The DOJ still stands by their assertion that Halligan’s appointment was in fact valid, since the office was vacant after Siebert’s departure.
“We have made Lindsay Halligan a special US attorney so she is in court, she can fight in court just like she was, and we believe we will be successful on appeal,” Bondi said on Monday. “I talked to all of our US attorneys, the majority of them around the country, and Lindsay Halligan is an excellent US attorney. And shame on them for not wanting her in office.”
Comey has been facing charges of lying to Congress and obstruction of justice, connected to his testimony in a previous Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, regarding leaks from a high-profile FBI investigation into a “possible connection” between Russia and President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
However, the claims have since been debunked, and the Russia-Trump probe ultimately failed to establish a criminal conspiracy. Nonetheless, Comey has still denied any wrongdoing, calling the case “a political hit job, not a pursuit of justice,” while maintaining that his statements were “truthful to the best of my recollection.”
James, indicted in October, has been accused of bank fraud and lying to a financial institution, in relation to a purchased property in Norfolk, Virginia. Prosecutors say she falsely claimed it to be a primary home to receive a favorable loan, while renting it out to a family member with a criminal history and collecting more income.
Prosecutors estimate that James illicitly received $19,000 from the loan, and she has also pleaded not guilty in her case.
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