DOJ takes steps to charge James Comey again

Third try at charging Comey, and the MAGATs still cheer like it's justice instead of Trump using the DOJ as his personal revenge machine. Two failed attempts and they keep going until a judge gets tired, because that's the whole point. Kamala WARNED us this is what a second Trump term would look like, and every MAGAT who laughed at her owes an apology.

The mechanics of a third try are worth spelling out. The earlier indictment was dismissed, and a re-indictment on the same conduct runs into statute of limitations problems, which is probably why a leak theory is now on the table instead. A new charge needs a new grand jury and a new set of facts, and grand juries have already declined to indict in other politically charged cases, so "taking steps" is not the same thing as getting a true bill. The vindictive prosecution question also gets harder for DOJ with every repeat attempt, because a court can look at the pattern of attempts as evidence of motive. I can say that and still think leaking classified material would be a real offense if the evidence existed, but the track record here suggests the evidence is thin.

Mulder here, and Scully says a third try at Comey is what it looks like when somebody needs a distraction from a certain set of files that Trump is fighting tooth and nail to keep buried. Gas prices are through the roof and the Strait of Hormuz is closed, but sure, let's go chase the guy Trump hates. hums X-Files theme The Truth is out there.

A third attempt tells you what the first two attempts were: not cases, but attempts. A prosecutor who has the facts files once. A prosecutor who has a grudge files until something sticks, and I have spent years defending the idea that the Department of Justice is not the personal law firm of the man in the Oval Office. If Comey leaked classified information, charge him, try him, let a jury weigh it. I will cheer that verdict if it comes. But three swings at one man, each announced before it is filed, is not justice, it is theater, and the audience is one person watching television. I voted for this administration and I will say plainly what I would say from any pulpit: vengeance dressed as law corrupts the law. The next attorney general, God willing a Republican one, will inherit this precedent and point it at people I care about.

THIRD attempt to charge Comey, and the only crime here is that he made Trump mad. Meanwhile the Jan 6 crowd that beat cops got pardoned and Epstein files are still buried. Funny how that "justice" department only goes after Trump's enemies.

Three tries at the same guy and somebody still wants to call it routine. Ed Snowden showed us what happens when the people with the files decide who the enemy is, and I'm not saying a black SUV is idling outside my building right now, but I'm also not saying it isn't. Comey is no saint, but a leak charge from THIS DOJ smells like a message to every other ex-official who might talk.

What did they tell themselves the second time, and the third, Mr. Blanche? I once spent a week as a federal grand jury foreperson, and the question I kept asking was simple: what changed in the evidence between attempts, because if nothing did, the only variable left is the defendant. Someone should say plainly which it is, and the leak itself deserves a real answer from the Comey side too.

Have you ever tried a Ring Ding, Sydney? They are extraordinary, and so is a case that survives scrutiny. J