Lindsey Halligan, special assistant to the president, speaks with a reporter outside the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
Trump installed Halligan last month to lead the federal prosecutor’s office in Alexandria after career prosecutors, including Erik Siebert, the former US attorney who had been overseeing the cases, reportedly expressed reservations about bringing charges against Trump’s perceived foes, including Comey, citing insufficient evidence. Siebert resigned soon after, prompting Trump to appoint Halligan in his place.
The effort comes as Comey's criminal case has emerged as a political lighting rod, punctuating years of public broadsides and quietly simmering tensions between Trump and his onetime FBI director, whom he fired in 2017, less than halfway through Comey's ten-year tenure as FBI director.
Comey used his memoir, "A Higher Loyalty," and subsequent public appearances to take umbrage against Trump and publicly criticize the actions he took during his first term. Trump has continued to assail Comey and scrutinize his tenure at the FBI, including by reportedly pressing for the investigation and empaneling of a grand jury.
Halligan ultimately secured the indictment from a grand jury in Alexandria just days before the statute of limitations ran out in bringing the case.
Halligan, a former insurance attorney in Florida, has said that the charges against Comey "represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public's trust."
"No one is above the law," she told reporters last month.
While the indictment drew praise from some Trump officials and allies, it also prompted criticism from others, who said the case shows the lengths Trump is willing to go to punish perceived political foes.
Hours earlier, the federal judge assigned to the case rejected the Justice Department’s request to limit Comey’s access to "protected" discovery materials in the prosecution.
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The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, Va., where James Comey was indicted. (Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)
At issue most recently was whether Comey, the former FBI director who was fired by Trump during his first White House term in 2017, should be granted access to certain discovery materials in his criminal case.
Halligan asked the judge to restrict his access to discovery materials, citing their sensitive nature and concern about them remaining in the hands of defendants.
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She argued the action has long precedent in the Eastern District of Virginia — the Alexandria-based federal court where many national security and intelligence cases are tried — calling it a "common practice."
Comey's lawyers filed their objection almost immediately.
They argued that Comey is a Virginia-licensed attorney who himself is "admitted to practice law in the Eastern District of Virginia," and who has already "been entrusted with some of the most sensitive and highly guarded information in the country," including during the Bush administration, when he served as the Deputy Attorney General and as FBI director — a role he held for nearly four years before Trump fired him in his first White House term.
"To assert now, that he cannot be trusted with receiving discovery in his case controverts his long career of distinguished government service at the highest levels," his lawyers said.
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI and other national news. She previously covered national politics at the Washington Examiner and The Washington Post, with additional bylines in Politico Magazine, the Colorado Gazette and others. You can send tips to Breanne at Breanne.Deppisch@fox.com, or follow her on X at @breanne_dep.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-sides-comey-fight-over-protected-discovery-materials