Mike Johnson Shows the Dems’ Shutdown Deal Is Already Backfiring

In one filing, the DOJ referred to an email chain between Comey and Richman spanning from October 29 to November 2, 2016, after Richman’s first term had ended. The government also cited emails sent on February 11 and April 23, 2017, and text exchanges between May 11 and 17, 2017, both of which took place after Richman had resigned.

Lawfare noted that it was possible that Richman’s formal employment status may not matter so much to a jury, though in one of Comey’s pretrial motions to dismiss, lawyers for the former FBI chief said that senators had been vague in their original questions and that “at the FBI” could reasonably not include part-time contractors.

Not including this latest hiccup, the DOJ’s case against Comey has already started to unravel. One magistrate judge has demanded prosecutors stop pawing through Comey and Richman’s communications, concerned that some of the material interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan used to personally secure Comey’s two-count criminal indictment may have potentially been subject to attorney-client privilege.