'The Court has been equally clear': Judge dings DOJ for contemplating warrantless search of Comey friend's files 'in direct contravention' of court orders

A national justice implicit the play tersely reminded the DOJ that it cannot simply hunt the agelong agone seized files of James Comey's erstwhile lawyer and person for "classified material" absent a "valid hunt warrant," arsenic the government appeals the dismissal of the ex-FBI director's prosecution.

Senior U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said her anterior orders were already wide that the DOJ cannot behaviour warrantless searches for classified accusation successful Daniel Richman's idiosyncratic machine files, but conscionable successful lawsuit the Trump medication wasn't afloat alert of that reality, she took it upon herself to "re-emphasize those obligations."

In the Saturday order, the justice chided the authorities for seemingly asking her for "permission" to hunt Richman's seized files for "classified material" without "obtaining a valid hunt warrant," the precise behaviour her orders siding with Comey's person walled disconnected successful the archetypal place.

Richman's suit against the authorities began successful precocious November, not agelong aft different national justice dismissed Comey's lawsuit connected the grounds that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi "unlawfully appointed" Lindsey Halligan arsenic interim U.S. lawyer for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Richman claimed that the authorities trampled connected his Fourth Amendment rights and conducted amerciable searches of his files to prosecute Comey, utilizing files seized up to six years agone arsenic portion of an FBI leak probe that led to nary charges against Richman. The DOJ countered that the plaintiff's lawsuit was to supply screen for a person against a reindictment.

Kollar-Kotelly, appointed to judgeships by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, and erstwhile appointed the presiding justice of the FISA tribunal by then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist, said earlier successful December that Richman "made each of the indispensable showings to get a constrictive impermanent restraining order" against the DOJ, blocking the feds from searching his files without a warrant.

The justice recovered Richman was "likely to win connected the merits of his assertion that the Government has violated his Fourth Amendment close against unreasonable searches and seizures by retaining a implicit transcript of each files connected his idiosyncratic machine (an 'image' of the computer) and searching that representation without a warrant." She ordered that the DOJ could not "access the covered materials" oregon stock them "without archetypal seeking and obtaining permission of this Court."

Kollar-Kotelly subsequently clarified that the DOJ was allowed to entree the "covered materials" for the "limited purpose" of "permanently delet[ing]" 1 "purportedly classified memorandum" from "any such" Richman instrumentality earlier returning the instrumentality to the plaintiff.

On Christmas Eve, Halligan and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche filed an exigency motion for much clip to certify that the DOJ has complied with the judge's order. But successful that motion, the justice said Saturday, the authorities seemed to contemplate a warrantless hunt for classified accusation beyond the lone memorandum.

"[T]he Government's Motion besides appears to petition support to hunt Petitioner Richman's materials for classified worldly without archetypal obtaining a valid hunt warrant, which would beryllium successful nonstop contravention of the Court's anterior Orders," Kollar-Kotelly wrote. "Accordingly, due to the fact that the Court has already ordered that the Government whitethorn not hunt Petitioner Richman's worldly to place further classified accusation without archetypal obtaining a valid hunt warrant, the Court shall DENY the Government's petition to bash so."

While the justice gave the DOJ until Jan. 5 to corroborate its compliance, she emphasized that she has "repeatedly explained" what Richman has "consented" to regarding the azygous memo and what the DOJ indispensable bash from here.

"[T]he Court has explained that, connected the contiguous record, determination is lone 1 purportedly classified papers wrong Petitioner Richman's materials: the memorandum from Mr. Comey that was contained successful the worldly primitively seized successful 2017 from Petitioner Richman's idiosyncratic machine hard drive," Kollar-Kotelly summarized. "Petitioner Richman has consented aggregate times to having the Government delete this classified memorandum from the worldly that is returned to him."

"While the Court has intelligibly ordered that the Government whitethorn delete the azygous classified memorandum from Mr. Comey from the worldly seized from Petitioner Richman's idiosyncratic hard thrust earlier returning those materials to Petitioner Richman, the Court has been arsenic wide successful ordering that the Government 'may not behaviour immoderate further reappraisal of Petitioner Richman's materials for classified worldly without archetypal obtaining a valid hunt warrant,'" she added.

The justice noted that the Trump medication "reviewed" Richman's files "numerous times" — "both lawfully and unlawfully" — and "failed to place immoderate purportedly classified worldly beyond the azygous memorandum identified successful the record."

As a result, Kollar-Kotelly ordered that the DOJ "shall not review" the files successful hunt of "classified worldly beyond the azygous classified memorandum […] without archetypal obtaining a valid hunt warrant."