MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos on Friday cast doubt on former FBI Director James Comey’s odds of getting his case dismissed on a pretrial motion.
Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors indicted Comey on Thursday on counts of making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation over his September 2020 testimony during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Cevallos said on “Ana Cabrera Reports” that it would be difficult to get the case dismissed for “selective prosecution” or “pretrial publicity” due to President Donald Trump’s involvement, adding that judges prefer to allow prosecutors the chance to try their cases.
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“The problem with these motions is that they have a 0 to 1% chance of succeeding. Although I’ll say if ever there was a case for selective prosecution, there is every element of it here,” Cevallos said. “The reality is, virtually all federal prosecution is selective by nature. The federal government is one of limited jurisdiction. They can’t possibly prosecute everything that’s a federal crime.”
“So in essence, part of being a federal prosecutor is being selective. And that’s why these motions almost always lose,” he continued. “So as much as Comey would want to knock it out in the beginning, realistically the case may proceed beyond the motions … realistically, it is tough to get a case tossed on a motion before it goes to trial. Judges do not like to deny prosecutors their opportunity to try the case.”
While Comey claimed he didn’t “authorize someone at the FBI to be an anonymous source,” the indictment found his assertion to be inaccurate, according to the DOJ.
The former FBI director maintained his innocence in response to the indictment on Instagram Thursday.
“My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I’m innocent,” Comey said. “So let’s have a trial and keep the faith.”
Trump told the Daily Caller in August that it “would not bother” him to see Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan arrested live on television. The president also expressed frustration with Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday, questioning the progress of investigations into Comey, Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California and Democratic Attorney General Letitia James of New York.
A CIA memo released in July showed that Comey and Brennan may have given false testimony when they asserted under oath that the infamous Steele Dossier played no role in their 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA).
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