Rogue Judge Orders Destruction of Evidence Against James Comey

There is a full-blown constitutional mess brewing over James Comey, and at the center of it is a Clinton-appointed judge ordering the FBI to destroy key email evidence tied directly to the obstruction case against him. This is not just another technical fight over discovery rules. This is a rogue judge stepping in to shield one of the left’s favorite anti-Trump heroes from accountability.

James Comey was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing its investigation into the Russiagate hoax. Central to the case are his messages with Daniel Richman, a Columbia Law professor and former government contractor, who acted as a conduit for information about Trump. Courts consider government-system communications non-private under the Fourth Amendment. Six years ago, a warrant approved by Judge James Boasberg allowed the FBI to seize Richman’s devices, though he could withhold certain privileged emails. Those communications became key evidence against Comey. Richman now seeks to recover the emails under Rule 41(g), claiming improper seizure.

Usually, that would be a matter for the court handling the criminal case. Instead, the situation has exploded into a separation-of-powers crisis.

Previously, District Judge Cameron Currie, a Clinton appointee, disqualified the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor who secured the Comey indictment. The Justice Department is appealing Currie’s ruling to the Fourth Circuit. While that appeal proceeds, a second Clinton-appointed judge in Washington, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, has gone even further. She granted Richman’s 41(g) motion and ordered the FBI to destroy the seized emails, sending only a sealed copy to Biden-appointed Judge Michael Nachmanoff, who presides over the Virginia case.

There’s no way to sugarcoat this. This looks like a partisan D.C. judge using Richman to blow up the evidentiary foundation of a case pending in another district. Her order prevents the FBI and prosecutors from examining the emails as the statute-of-limitations clock ticks, strangling the government’s ability to build a new indictment even if higher courts reverse Currie’s earlier decision.

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“Kollar-Kotelly’s decision is more disturbing because it implicates the separation of powers,” explains Michael R. Davis, the founder and president of the Article III Project. “Usually, Rule 41(g) comes into play where a defendant has had property wrongly seized, and he moves to reclaim it. Here, Comey is not seeking to reclaim anything; Richman, a then-government contractor with whom Comey communicated extensively about government business, is seeking this evidence. Richman has run to a partisan Democrat judge not even involved in the criminal case — and not even in the same district — to procure the destruction of crucial evidence in that case in an obvious effort to assist his friend Comey.”

We’ve seen rogue judges hamstring the Trump administration at every turn, and the more they get away with it, the more emboldened they’ve become. Kollar-Kotelly imposed an aggressive destruction deadline and refused to pause her ruling for appellate review, forcing the Justice Department to rush to the D.C. Circuit or Supreme Court for an emergency stay.

Make no mistake about it, the cross-district interference, the statute-of-limitations pressure, and the push to wipe out evidence from a lawfully approved warrant all point to a Deep State effort to protect James Comey, who helped launch the era of lawfare against Trump. A system where judges both wage lawfare and shield its architects cannot endure, and higher courts and lawmakers must act before the damage becomes permanent.

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