There is no issue with how the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey was obtained, the Department of Justice (DOJ) argued in new court filings.
Prosecutors sought to correct the record in filings following a Wednesday hearing where they admitted under questioning from the judge that the final version of the indictment was not shown to the full grand jury. Comey’s defense attorneys declared the potential misstep was grounds for dismissing the case.
“The official transcript of the September 25, 2025, proceedings before Magistrate Judge Vaala conclusively refutes that claim and establishes that the grand jury voted on – and true-billed – the two-count indictment,” prosecutors wrote in a Thursday filing.
A section of the grand jury transcript publicly filed Thursday reveals initial confusion arose when the magistrate judge was presented on Sept. 25 with two indictments: one two-count indictment and a three-count indictment that suggested the jurors did not concur.
“So the three counts should be just one count,” the jury foreperson explained, according to the transcript. “It was the very first count that we did not agree on, and the Count Two and Three were then put in a different package, which we agreed on.”
The foreperson affirmed that jurors voted on the “one that has the two counts.” The judge noted this has “never happened before” and asked Halligan to offer an explanation.
“I only reviewed the one with the two counts that our office redrafted when we found out about the two — two counts that were true billed, and I signed that one,” Halligan told the judge. “I did not see the other one. I don’t know where that came from.”
‘Neither Unusual Nor Improper’
In a Wednesday night filing, prosecutors also objected to a magistrate judge’s Monday ruling granting Comey’s request to review typically secret grand jury material, where the judge suggested “profound investigative missteps” could lead to the case’s dismissal.
The revised indictment “simply reflected the grand jury’s vote; it was neither unusual nor improper,” the DOJ argued.
“This was not, as the magistrate judge opines, an ‘unusual series of events’ and is fully explained by the U.S. Attorney’s declaration, the court reporter’s recollection, the grand jury coordinator’s discussion with the grand jury foreperson, and the grand jury foreperson’s explanation in court,” prosecutors wrote.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, who has previously called the Comey case weak, wrote that the suggestion grand jury situation amounts to a significant error “seems wrong.”
“There is no reason to believe the no true bill was improperly executed by the grand jury; it indicates that two counts were approved,” McCarthy wrote for National Review on Wednesday. “All the second document does is, word for word, repeat the two approved counts, while omitting the count the grand jury rejected.”
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