Trump Loyalist Admits Grand Jury Never Saw Final Comey Indictment

Grand jurors have to vote on indictments to approve them, but a prosecutor told the judge in the case that only the foreperson formally approved the second charging document, a move that could cripple the case.

President Trump has consistently attacked James B. Comey since firing him as F.B.I. director in May 2017. Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

By Alan Feuer and Devlin Barrett
https://www.nytimes.com/by/alan-feuer
https://www.nytimes.com/by/devlin-barrett
Reporting from Alexandria, Va.

Nov. 19, 2025
Updated 3:52 p.m. ET

A federal judge grilled the prosecutors pursuing charges against James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, on Wednesday, interrogating them with a series of questions that underscored irregularities in the case, including that the full grand jury did not see the indictment it was supposed to have approved.

The questioning by the judge, Michael S. Nachmanoff, took place at an excruciatingly awkward hearing in Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., that was nominally held to consider the narrow issue of whether the charges against Mr. Comey had been filed as an act of vindictive retribution by President Trump.

But Judge Nachmanoff peppered prosecutors with questions on a range of topics, including Mr. Trump’s own statements about wanting Mr. Comey to be indicted, and an earlier decision by career members of the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria to forgo bringing charges.

But Judge Nachmanoff peppered prosecutors with questions on a range of topics, including Mr. Trump’s own statements about wanting Mr. Comey to be indicted, and an earlier decision by career members of the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria to forgo bringing charges.

In one remarkable moment, the judge posed some of his questions directly to Lindsey Halligan, the U.S. attorney handpicked by Mr. Trump to bring the case, quizzing her on how she had presented it to the grand jury. Just this week, that subject led another judge involved in the case to suggest that she may have engaged in prosecutorial misconduct. ... Judge Nachmanoff’s inquiries were extraordinary by almost any measure. But the answers prosecutors gave him in return were even more so.

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Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former President Donald J. Trump.

Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.