And today's Episode of "Punting Ms. Lyndsey"
This reply memorandum argues that the government's pursuit of an indictment against James B. Comey, Jr. is plagued by misconduct that "shocks the conscience," necessitating the disclosure of grand jury proceedings. The central claim is that the government committed constitutional violations, including conducting a warrantless search of privileged attorney-client materials and using them before the grand jury, misstating fundamental principles of law, and failing to present significant exculpatory evidence. Most critically, the government has conceded that it never presented the operative indictment to the grand jury for a vote, meaning no valid indictment was returned before the statute of limitations expired. Mr. Comey contends that these profound, compounded irregularities provide the necessary "particularized basis" under Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to compel the disclosure of the grand jury transcripts, as grounds may exist to dismiss the entire indictment.
The argument for disclosure is reinforced by several specific and cumulative irregularities. Counsel argues that the prosecutor, Ms. Halligan, made "fundamental misstatements of the law" to the grand jury and may have failed to properly instruct them on issues like Mr. Comey's Fifth Amendment rights or the legal requirement that a false-statements charge cannot rest on ambiguous questions. The defense further asserts that the introduction of unconstitutionally seized evidence from a warrantless search and privileged communications prejudiced the defendant, especially given the "centrality" of these materials to the presentation. Additionally, the government's recent concession that it intends to rely on testimony for Count Two which the grand jury previously rejected ("no true bill") demonstrates significant tension and accentuates concerns about how the grand jury was instructed on the law and facts, warranting a "close inspection of her conduct." The disclosure of these proceedings is sought to determine the extent of prosecutorial misconduct and the validity of the charged counts.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.582135/gov.uscourts.vaed.582135.208.0.pdf