'It's over': George Conway reveals Trump's big mistake that makes Comey charges 'invalid'

https://youtu.be/BGloiyi_QxQ?si=lnei_D-Hweg4_1Ah

Conway pointed out that when Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Lindsey Halligan to be interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in late September, she overlooked a key requirement in the federal law that governs U.S. attorney vacancies. Section B of that law reads: "The Attorney General shall not appoint as United States attorney a person to whose appointment by the President to that office the Senate refused to give advice and consent," meaning anyone an attorney general appoints to a vacant U.S. attorney's office has to have already been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

"She has no more authority than you or I — or my two corgis — to present an indictment to a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia," Conway explained.

According to Conway, Erik Siebert, who was in the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. attorney's office before Halligan, was also not Senate-confirmed. However, he noted that the vacancies law allows for any interim U.S. attorney to be allowed to keep serving on an interim basis provided that the federal judges of that respective district's court sign off on their appointment after a 120-day period.

Because the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia extended Siebert's appointment in May, he was legally able to prosecute cases on behalf of the DOJ. But Conway reminded viewers that Siebert was forced out of his role after saying there was insufficient evidence to bring cases against Trump's rivals, like Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. And he pointed out that former interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba was forced out of her role in the District of New Jersey after a judge ruled her appointment conflicted with the vacancies law. Former interim U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III was also rejected by judges in the Northern District of New York after his 120-day window expired.

"The president didn't like him because he didn't want to file this stupid and meritless indictment against Comey, so he resigned," Conway said. "If what had happened to [Halligan] that day had happened to me, I would want to crawl under a rock and never be heard from again. But, you know, good for her."

"[Halligan] has basically no authority. She's not the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia ... We saw her signature on that indictment — no one else signed that indictment — which means that it is invalid," he continued. "Because no other valid attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia's U.S. attorney's office signed the indictment, and because the statute of limitations has run, it's over."

"The statute of limitations expired at midnight last night. So Comey's home free," Conway added. "This case should be done. Sorry!"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/its-over-george-conway-reveals-trumps-big-mistake-that-makes-comey-charges-invalid/ar-AA1NHuk0

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49318952)

refused is an overt action

if they never considered her, they never refused her

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49321951)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49322590)

my interpretation is likely wrong if interim appointments require advise and consent approval.

i was just reading the language provided.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49322754)

Subsection d reads: If an appointment expires under subsection (c)(2), the district court for such district may appoint a United States attorney to serve until the vacancy is filled. The order of appointment by the court shall be filed with the clerk of the court.

The President can also appoint an interim under the fed vacancies reform act, but she doesn’t qualify under that bc she (1) wasnt confirmed by the senate for another position, (2) wasn’t the “first assistant” to the us atty before that person left office, or (3) employed in the doj for 90 days making 155k or more (or whatever a gs-15 makes).

The appointment is invalid.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49323697)

i believe this was right at the sol to charge comey. will sol run out because it was filed by an invalid attorney or can that be fixed nunc pro tunc or some other way by a valid attorney?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49324508)

when they decided the NLRB general counsel case, the court ruled that the invalidity of the acting GC's appointment (under the FVRA, not the above statute) was voidable, rather than void ab initio, so that any party not raising it as an affirmative defense waived the argument. many of us thought they'd find simply that the improper appointment invalidated everything the acting GC did, whether or not a party challenged the appointment.

different law, different circumstance. the sol issue didn't apply in the NLRB context, because the sol applies to a charging party filing its charge with the NLRB - length of time it takes to prosecute a case isn't relevant. this is different because the sol ran when there was an (apparently) invalidly appointed us atty.

i'm interested to see what they do with this case. particularly the argument the poaster below says the trump admin is going to make (which i think is stupid - that he can do an end run around the statute by firing the interim us atty)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49326375)

SCOTUS invalidated a bunch of NLRB decisions a few years ago because the complaints were issued by an extreme shitlib Obama appointed as the Acting General Counsel of the NLRB in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

wasnt the acting US atty some insurance defense shitlawyer before this? someone appointed to an acting role has to either have been the assistant to the person who just vacated the office or a ranking official of the govt. you can't just install a random person to the job.

i think it's an open question whether this indictment can be "ratified" when there is a properly appointed US atty or acting US atty. conway's argument is that the sol has run. he might be right that comey is off and can never be charged.

the policy implications of this are obviously bad. nobody can be charged with a federal crime in the EDVA if this is correct.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49319068)

Not true. The statute says the federal bench for that district gets to appoint another interim us attorney once the initial 120 days has expired until a successor is confirmed by the senate. the bench did that, then Trump fired the guy for refusing to prosecute Comey. Under the statute the AG gets once shot at an interim appointment. They don’t get to keep stringing along 120 day interim appointments indefinitely by firing the interim us attorney and getting a fresh 120 days. since the initial 120 days is up, under the statute the bench gets to appoint another interim us attorney to serve until a successor is confirmed by the senate.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49319143)

Wouldn't another AUSA be able to sign any indictment? I thought that's what usually happens. The problem in the Comey case is that no one was willing to touch this because the office's opinion was that there's no case.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49321935)

i have no idea whether that invalidates the indictment, so i take no position on that, but he should have appointed someone within the DOJ (who makes at least as much as a GS-15) to the job. this was a mistake.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49319091)

i'm open to other arguments for why her appointment is valid, but it appears to be clearly invalid.

edit: apparently there is another statutory provision that applies in addition to the FVRA, and the Atty General can appoint someone for 120 days (presumably anyone), but once the 120 days expires, "the district court" has to appoint a successor acting US atty. The AG apparently appointed some guy to the job, and his 120 days ended. i suppose the issue is whether power of "the district court" to appoint someone else is somehow invalid and that the president should have the right to just appoint anyone. i suppose that can be litigated for the next 10 years.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49319103)

however, the indictment against comey does appear to have a serious problem.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49319154)

“libs started it”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49319213)

can you let me know which of his political enemies trump went after during his first term? when exactly was hillary charged with something? or was that just something he chanted to rile his base up ahead of the election?

dems immediately started trying to impeach him. then when biden was in office he's all of a sudden getting charged with nonsense "crimes" (just like the one comey was charged with). all of it fell flat, and now they are getting all of this shit back. it's not right, but they went over the top with it so whatever.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49319214)

can't say as much for the libs. didn't he get charged with like 50 felonies? not to mention all the impeachment nonsense.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49323634)

lol what a fucking hack

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49321867)

let me guess, you're an HVAC repairman living in are country and you actually think trump is going to be installed dictator for life.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49319122)

the courts tend to be concerned with what "feels right."

i once knew a guy who was subject to an illegal search and charged with coke possession and caught federal charges. his fancy jew lawyer made an argument about the constitution and the prosecutor said "but your honor. he did it, he had the drugs on him."

the federal judge, i shit you not, lowered his glasses and said to my friend, "son, i don't care much for what this "amendment to the constitution" says....did you actually do it?"

my friend isn't one to lie, so he said "i sure did, your honor. mr. horowitz here said he found a loophole."

then the judge said "well, unlucky fer you, son, mr. horowitz isn't in charge here. i am"

and he sentenced my friend to 3 years.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49319164)

it's hard to believe someone read what i wrote above and took from it that i was trying to pass that off as a thing that happened. jfc.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49321888)

SCOTUS agreed and invalidated a shitload of cases. although the NLRB later "ratified" almost all of them, so the effect wasn't as severe as people had hoped.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49321910)

hey, that's just ticky-tacky nonsense. you need to just roll your sleeves up and get to the hard work of figuring out what the "right" thing to do is. did comey do it? then procedure be damned!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49321983)

https://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=5756662&mc=19&forum_id=2

The same logic should apply to Comey’s case (as if the judge wasn’t already looking for a basis to dismiss the charges, but this fuck up gives him an easy out)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49322065)

https://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&mc=47&forum_id=2#49322065

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49322077)

https://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=5780841&mc=39&forum_id=2

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49319275)

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/dEvs25hccGAqDFSHj9K24g--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTI0MDA7aD0xNjAwO2NmPXdlYnA-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_independent_635/c4f76cc1e341f010c5e4e7f9778f2c3b

Cons, have you fully transvestigated this "person"?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5782231&forum_id=2#49322328)