After a two -month investigation, federal prosecutors in Virginia could not gather sufficient evidence to support criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey for allegedly lying to Congress, the sources tell ABC News.
Prosecutors in early this week summarized their findings, which there is no probable cause to ensure an accusation, much less a conviction in the trial, in a detailed memorandum of decline for Lindsey Halligan, the newly used prosecutor of the United States of President Donald Trump for the East district of Virginia, sources said.
However, the sources say that Haligan plans to ask a great jury in the next few days to accuse Comment, climbing Trump’s unprecedented directive to process some of his political adversaries.
“I just want people to act, they have to act, and we want to act quickly,” Trump said Saturday after ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to process Comey, the New York Attorney General Letitia James and Senator Adam Schiff.
A former insurance lawyer turned into a White House assistant without experience in processes, Halligan has been advised by career prosecutors in the office of the United States prosecutor who would seek charges would violate the DOJ policy, would raise serious ethical problems and the risk of being rejected by the Grand Jury, Fuentes said. She plans to follow an accusation anyway, carrying out the clear mandate she received when she was installed in the position during the weekend, the sources said.
On Thursday, Trump called Comey a “bad person,” but said the decision to prosecute depends on the Department of Justice.
“They are going to make a determination. I am not making that determination. I think it would be allowed to get involved if I want, but I really do not choose to do it,” Trump told journalists at the White House on Thursday, a few days after imploring the Department of Justice to act.
In this archive photo of June 8, 2017, former FBI director James Comey speaks during an audience of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC
Andrew Harnik/AP, file
Haligan is working against the clock, with the five -year limiting statute to process Comey for allegedly making false statements expired on Tuesday.
The rapid impulse for an accusation, despite the recommendation of career prosecutors, arrives at a tense moment for the High Profile Bar Association, which manages a majority of national security cases in the country. Trump’s previous choice for work, Erik Siebert, resigned last week after being pressured to present mortgage fraud charges against James, and Trump, who said he fired Siebert, placed Halligan on paper, annuling the leadership of the Senior Doj, with a clear objective of ensuring criminal charges against James, Schiff and Comey.
Trump has repeatedly invoked the four criminal cases he faced after losing the 2020 elections, including the positions that he handled the national security secrets and tried to illegally revoke an election, to justify taking the cases against the three adversaries for a long time of the president.
“Nothing is being done. What happens to Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff and Leticia?” Trump wrote in a publication on social networks on Saturday night. “We cannot delay anymore, it is killing our reputation and credibility. They accused me twice and accused me (5 times!), More of nothing. Justice should be served, now!”
The United States Prosecutor’s Office in Eastern District of Virginia began investigating Comey in early August after Trump’s renewed called for prosecutions related to the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections, sources told ABC News.
The investigation, which is carried out simultaneously in the west district of Virginia and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, was derived directly from the discovery of the director of the FBI Kash Patel of sensitive documents at the FBI headquarters related to the investigation of Russia, Fuentes said.
They said that the documents led researchers to examine whether Comey’s testimony before Congress in September 2020, with respect to Russian interference, could support perjury or obstruction charges. The prosecutors specifically examined Comey’s testimony about the alleged participation of Hillary Clinton that links Trump with Russia and if Comey authorized anonymous information leaks to the media.
During his testimony of the Senate Judicial Committee on September 30, 2016, Comey defended his conduct and rejected the claims that the investigation was politically motivated.
“I would say that in general it was made by the book, it was appropriate, and it was essential to be done,” Comey told the senators. “In general, I am proud of work. There are parts that are worrisome, which I am sure we will talk. But in general I am proud of work.”
Ultimately, prosecutors could not find evidence to prove that Comey probably committed perjury or obstruction during their testimony, sources told ABC News.
The charges will not only fail to ensure a conviction, which requires proveing accusations beyond a reasonable doubt, but also not reaching the standard of probable cause much lower for an accusation, prosecutors concluded in a memorandum provided to Halligan, according to Fuentes.
