CNN: Comey Asks Judge to Toss Trump DOJ Indictment

BROWN: “And right now, as we come on the air, we are following major breaking developments in the criminal case against James Comey. The former FBI director just now making some key filings to the federal indictment against him, trying to get the case thrown out. So let’s get off the sidelines and go into the Arena, my panelists here, but first, let’s get right to CNN crime and Justice correspondent Katelyn Polantz with those filings. I know you’re looking through them. Katelyn, we know James Comey was going to argue a few things to try and get a judge to dismiss this case. Take us through what you’re seeing.”

POLANTZ: “Well, Pam, the big one here is that Comey’s team is using Donald Trump’s words, or attempting to use his own words against him, trying to get this case dismissed by saying look at what Trump has ordered the Justice Department to do. So, I’m talking about a filing. It’s called a selective or vindictive prosecution filing, meaning that Comey’s team is arguing to a federal judge that Comey should not have been charged with a crime here, and the reasons that he were charged were not good ones. In this argument, they say that Comey had been a critic of Trump. Trump had a years-long personal animus against Jim Comey, just totally hated him, and they’re arguing that Donald Trump is the person that said to the Justice Department you must prosecute Jim Comey, and if that had not happened, this case wouldn’t exist. One of the things that the defense team writes here is that they say it’s smoking gun evidence that Donald Trump has said on social media over and over again how much he hates Jim Comey and that that is the reason that this case should be dismissed. They even attach 60 pages of social media posts. Some are Comey’s criticisms of Donald Trump in the public sphere. But those 60 pages, I paged through them, it is largely times that Donald Trump has written on the platform X, on Truth Social and in other venues that he really doesn’t like Jim Comey. So that is now going to be an issue before the judge and a look — the judge will have to look and see whether that’s enough to dismiss this case.”

BROWN: “Yeah, he has certainly made that clear. Ahead of these filings from James Comey, the Justice Department is taking issue with his defense attorney in the case. What’s going on there?”

POLANTZ: “Pam, that is something that has come up today in this case. This is because there are documents from back in 2017, where James Comey was talking to his lawyers whenever he was dealing with his, what we called Comey Memos at the time, the memos he wrote about his interactions with Donald Trump. What happened is that the Justice Department wants access to those records. They’re currently being held by what’s called a filter team, so a group of lawyers that keep them separate from the prosecutors because they are attorney-client communications. And to get access to them, this Justice Department, these prosecutors are going to the judge and saying, well, we think there may be a conflict of interest here. There may be an issue with one of Comey’s lawyers, the lead lawyer in this case, Pat Fitzgerald, who’s defending him. They’re not asking to get rid of Pat Fitzgerald on this case right now, but they are insinuating that he may have an issue going forward. But his team, Comey’s team, Pat Fitzgerald, they’re writing to the judge and say they’re just trying to defame us, they’re just trying to misdirect things. This is not a real issue here in this case.”

BROWN: “All right, Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much, as always.”