More trouble for Justice Dept. in Comey case

Prosecutors admit that most of the grand jury did not see a copy of the final indictment.

- BY ERIC TUCKER AND MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

FAMILY members of former FBI Director James Comey arrive at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va.

(NATHAN HOWARD Getty Images)

The prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey hit another hurdle Wednesday as the Justice Department acknowledged a possible lapse in how the case was presented to a federal grand jury for indictment.

The concession risked further imperiling a politically charged prosecution already subject to multiple challenges and demands for its dismissal. It came during a hearing in which Comey's lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff to throw out the case on grounds that the government was being vindictive. A separate challenge to Lindsey Halligan, the hastily appointed and inexperienced prosecutor who secured the indictment, is pending.

The revelation that the full grand jury did not review a copy of the final indictment in the case is the latest indication of the Justice Department's seemingly disjointed pursuit of criminal charges against Comey. He was fired by President Trump in May 2017 while overseeing an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign. The two have been publicly at odds ever since, with Trump deriding Comey as "a weak and untruthful slime ball" and calling for his prosecution.

Concerns about the legal process surfaced earlier in the week when a different judge in the case raised questions about what he said were "profound investigative missteps," including misstatements of the law and a potential breach of attorney-client privilege.