The good news for the government is that the problem with its timeline associated with the Comey indictment appears resolved. The bad news is that resolution requires dismissal of the case for the quite simple reason that the grand jury never voted on the operative indictment.
The timeline problem is one I discussed in
an article here two days ago. Halligan claims she had no dealings with the grand jury after presenting the case to it. However, she presented a three-count case that the grand jury no-billed because it rejected the first count. The government contends the grand jury then issued a two-count indictment. But how could it if Halligan never presented the grand jury with the two-count indictment? Two days ago
a defense brief presented exactly that problem to the judge. The brief argued:
“the affidavit Ms. Halligan voluntarily presented raised significant concerns about whether the operative indictment was actually presented to the grand jury, and if so, by whom. The logical conclusion from Ms. Halligan’s declaration is that no one from the government presented a new indictment to the grand jury after it issued a no bill. Ms.Halligan’s declaration attests that she did not reappear before the grand jury upon learning of the grand jury’s vote to no bill the indictment.”
This morning in a hearing the government apparently conceded that is exactly what happened.
