Judge ruled DoJ engaged in āprofound investigative misstepsā on way to indicting the former FBI director
Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick ruled on Monday that the justice department engaged in a ādisturbing pattern of profound investigative misstepsā on its way to indicting Comey. The federal judge directed prosecutors to produce to defense lawyers all grand jury materials from the case.
Fitzpatrick wrote that problems include āfundamental misstatements of the lawā by a prosecutor to a grand jury that indicted Comey in September, the use of potentially privileged communications in the investigation and unexplained irregularities in the transcript of the grand jury proceedings.
āThe Court recognizes that the relief sought by the defense is rarely granted,ā Fitzpatrick wrote, adding: āHowever, the record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding.ā
This does not happen very often, I donāt think.
It almost never happens. Grand jury materials and transcripts are secret. A defense attorney has to climb a very large hill to get access to any of these materials.