QOTD -- "Purposeful, Reckless Or Negligent"

 

“The court is finding that the government’s actions in this case — whether purposeful, reckless or negligent — raise genuine issues of misconduct, are inextricably linked to the government’s grand jury presentation and deserve to be fully explored by the defense." -- Magistrate Judge William E. Fitzpatrick, in his ruling today on making grand jury materials available to former FBI Director James Comey's defense team.  Trump antagonist Comey is being revenge-prosecuted for allegedly lying to Congress in 2020.  "The government" (specifically former insurance lawyer bimbo turned Trump prosecutor Lindsey Halligan) made two "fundamental and highly prejudicial" misstatements of the law to the grand jury. The linked article summarizes Halligan's incompetence, par for the course for a Trump appointee:

[Fitzpatrick] noted that during her grand jury presentation she appears to have misrepresented a basic tenet of the law by suggesting that Mr. Comey did not have the right, under the Fifth Amendment, to avoid testifying at his own trial.

She also appears to have made another astonishing error, Judge Fitzpatrick said. In his ruling, he pointed out that she told grand jurors that they did not have to rely solely “on the record before them” to return an indictment against Mr. Comey, but instead “could be assured the government had more evidence — perhaps better evidence — that would be presented at trial.”

The judge also said that Ms. Halligan appears to have botched her efforts to pare down the three-count indictment she had initially sought against Mr. Comey after grand jurors rejected one of the charges. Moreover, he noted that the grand jury transcripts he later received from her did not appear to contain her presentation of the second, two-charge indictment to the grand jury, leaving the record incomplete.

Her law degree must be from Trump University.

His ruling can be read here (pdf).

UPDATE:  The federal judge overseeing the case, Michael Nachmanoff, has issued a temporary stay on Fitzpatrick's order, giving the DOJ until 5 p.m. Wednesday to file objections to the order, and Comey's attorneys until 5 p.m. Friday to respond to any DOJ objections.