Two months ago, Donald Trump ordered his Justice Department to go after two of his biggest “enemies,” former FBI Director James Comey and New York’s AG Letitia James. Neither Comey nor James had committed any crimes in general or against Trump specifically. James was targeted because she prosecuted one of the cases against Trump for his financial misdeeds in the state of New York (she won the case). Comey was targeted… well, I’m still not entirely sure, but I think the general idea was that Comey resisted turning the entirety of the FBI into Trump’s personal SS in Trump’s first term. As I said back in September, even a layperson like me understood that the “cases” against James and Comey would not hold up whatsoever. Quelle surprise, the bullsh-t “indictments” were just tossed.

A federal judge on Monday tossed out separate criminal charges against the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey and New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, saying the loyalist prosecutor installed by President Trump to bring the cases was put into her job unlawfully.

The twin rulings, by Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, were the most significant setback yet to the president’s efforts to force the criminal justice system to punish his perceived foes. The case dismissals also served as a rebuke to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had rushed to carry out Mr. Trump’s orders to appoint the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The dismissals, while embarrassing for the White House and the Justice Department, are unlikely to be the last word on an issue of constitutional authority that many legal experts expect could be appealed to the Supreme Court. And the way Judge Currie rendered her decision left open the possibility that another prosecutor could refile the charges against both Mr. Comey and Ms. James.

Judge Currie’s orders center on Mr. Trump’s unorthodox decision to appoint Ms. Halligan to her prosecutorial position in an interim capacity, replacing his previous pick, who was also serving in a temporary role. Within days after assuming her new post, Ms. Halligan rejected the advice of the career prosecutors in her new office and moved single-handedly to indict both Mr. Comey and Ms. James, two of the president’s most reviled targets.

In her rulings on Monday, Judge Currie said that it was unlawful to appoint two interim prosecutors in succession, and dismissed the charges against Mr. Comey and Ms. James without prejudice.

[From The NY Times]

While this is deeply embarrassing for the clownshow that is the current Department of Justice, Judge Currie actually did the Trumpers a huge favor by dismissing the indictments. Last week, a federal magistrate judge named William E. Fitzpatrick ruled that Lindsey Halligan had f–ked up the Comey indictment completely, including lying to the grand jury and general government misconduct. Even beyond these cases, it’s become a normal thing to see judges across the country appalled by the Trump administration’s lies, misconduct and half-assed legal arguments. Anyway, as the NYT says, this is not the end of Trump’s attempt to prosecute his “enemies.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Janet Mayer/startraksphoto.com.