A federal judge has dismissed the criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James after ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was unlawfully appointed. The decision came Monday and immediately voided the high profile indictment that had accused James of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie determined that interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan did not have the legal authority to present the case to a grand jury. Her appointment was deemed invalid, a ruling that automatically undercut the legitimacy of the indictment itself. The judge reached the same conclusion in the related criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey.
According to the ruling, the indictment had to be thrown out because Halligan’s appointment violated federal requirements for interim prosecutors. Currie concluded that Halligan’s role “was not lawfully authorized” and therefore could not be the basis for felony charges.
The dismissal was issued without prejudice. This means the Department of Justice could choose to refile charges at a later time, but only through a properly appointed federal prosecutor. For now, the case against James is legally stalled and cannot move forward.
The original indictment, returned in October, had drawn immediate political scrutiny because James has pursued several high profile civil actions against Donald Trump. Her legal team argued that the federal case was flawed from the start and that the prosecutor lacked legitimate authority to pursue it.
The Department of Justice has not announced whether it will attempt to bring the matter back before a grand jury.
