DOJ now says Comey grand jury did see final indictment

Robert Burnson, Bloomberg News on Nov 21, 2025

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The prosecutor hand-picked by President Donald Trump to pursue a criminal case against James Comey now says the indictment of the former FBI director was properly presented to a grand jury for a vote — a day after telling a judge the final version of the charging papers was never shown to the full jury.

In a “notice correcting the record” filed Thursday, Lindsey Halligan, who was recently appointed as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, told the judge presiding over the case that a transcript of grand jury proceedings “conclusively” shows that the full panel saw the final version of the indictment.

If the judge accepts Halligan’s new version of events, it would be one less challenge for her as she tries to moves forward with the case.

In a Friday filing, Comey’s lawyers didn’t accept the prosecution’s reversal.

Halligan’s new position “contradicts numerous other representations that the government has made to this court,” they wrote. “And it rests on an erroneous overreading of an ambiguous exchange between the grand jury foreperson and the magistrate judge.”

The latest filing by Comey’s team built on the attorneys’ argument Thursday that multiple irregularities in how the indictment was handled provide for a basis for the judge to dismiss it “based on the government’s misconduct.”

“The litany of errors that have surfaced just in the last week warrants close inspection” of Halligan’s conduct in the case, Comey’s attorneys wrote Thursday.

Comey is one of several of Trump’s perceived enemies targeted in criminal probes by his administration. Comey has previously argued his case should be thrown out because it is “vindictive.”

The case is U.S. v. Comey, 25-cr-272, US District Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria).