Comey, James Cases Dismissed, But Legal Fight Continues

At Walmart, we're helping our associates build meaningful careers. One way we're doing that, investing $1 billion in training and education. Last year, more than 100,000 associates earned promotions. Combined with benefits like 401K matching and paid parental leave, we're proving that Walmart isn't just a place to work, it's a place to grow. Learn more at walmart.com slash grow at Walmart. The spirit of innovation is deeply ingrained in America, and Google is helping Americans innovate in ways both big and small. The U.S. Department of Transportation is empowering staff with Google AI tools to rapidly synthesize research and streamline contracting, directly strengthening the safety and reliability of our nation's transit systems. This is a new era of American innovation. Learn more at g.co-slash American Innovation. I'm Charles Pan. I'm Kat Timpf. I'm Stuart Varnie, and this is the Fox News Rundown.

Tuesday, November 25th, 2025. I'm Jessica Rosenthal. The Justice Department's cases against the former FBI director and the New York Attorney General have been dismissed by a federal judge, but the legal fight appears to be far from over. The problem with these indictments is that they're a rather target-rich environment for defense attorneys. They were rushed in with a statute of limitations that was coming to end, and it shows. I'm Dave Anthony. The Thanksgiving travel rush is on, and it's a good thing the problems the government shutdown caused at airports are in the rearview mirror. Bring your sanity because even though everything's, quote, back to normal, there's nothing normal about a holiday travel weekend, and this is going to be one of the busiest we've seen. And I'm Jason Chaffetz. I've got the final word on the Fox News rundown. Federal Judge Cameron Curry called the appointment of Lindsey Halligan as interim Eastern Virginia U.S. attorney defective, saying she exercised power she did not lawfully possess in bringing indictments to grand juries in the cases against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey. James Comey said in reaction in an Instagram video, This case mattered to me personally, obviously, but it matters most because a message has to be sent. that the president of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies. James said she was heartened by the victory and grateful for the prayers and support she's received from around the country, that she remains fearless in the face of these baseless charges. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt says the Justice Department will appeal. And this judge took an unprecedented action to throw these cases out to shield James Comey and Letitia James from accountability based on a technical ruling in the administration. the administration disagrees with that technical ruling. We believe the attorney in this case, Lindsey Halligan, is not only extremely qualified for this position, but she was in fact legally appointed. Before Lindsey Halligan was appointed, her predecessor was Eric Siebert, who had fulfilled most of the 120-day time period allotted to fill an interim U.S. attorney role. After that, a Senate confirmed appointee must fill the rule, or the district judges will appoint someone, often someone in the role of assistant U.S. attorney, to fill the position in the meantime. Certainly here, Lindsey Halligan was appointed just days before the five-year statute of limitations expired in James Comey's case. Colmy was indicted for lying to Congress and James indicted for bank fraud relating to a mortgage. Both have denied the charges. The ruling itself was not particularly surprising. Jonathan Turley is a George Washington University law professor and Fox News legal contributor. An earlier judge in New Jersey had reached the same conclusion on the same ground. At issue is the prosecutor herself. not the underlying charges. The key here is that Judge Curry dismissed without prejudice the indictments against James Comey and Letitia James. That means the administration can cure those indictments by doing it correctly. And in this case with Ms. Lindsey Halligan, when Attorney General Pam Bondi retroactively called her, well, we're going to call her a special attorney. That was deemed insufficient. They can't get around this interim 120-day cap by calling somebody a special attorney.

The administration was making a number of novel arguments, including that this is a different creature, a special prosecutor and not an interim U.S. attorney. It also argued that Attorney General Pam Bondi essentially ratified the signature with her own signature. All of that was quite novel, but novelty is not a good thing in a criminal indictment. Federal judges don't like novelty. They want to see procedural correctness. And the other problem is that under this federal law, once that 120 days expires, it's a power that rests with the district court itself. It's the court that appoints the new interim U.S. attorney. So from the perspective of the court, the administration was saying that it could effectively daisy chain 120-day periods forever and never trigger the statute. Well, as you might imagine, that's not going to fly. And the court said, do it again. or let these two go. Now, this is interesting, right, because we're seeing this in the Alina Habba matter in New Jersey, right? If you, if the senators, for example, like they are in New Jersey, don't back the appointment of whatever individual's been, you know, nominated, then... the vacancy has to be filled, right? And so it's left, as you're pointing out, to the federal judges, right, to make that call. You're saying in this case, that would also apply here. If there's a vacancy and you're at the 120-day mark and you need to fill it, if you don't fill it properly, it's going to be handled by the federal judges in that district. That's right. I don't think that the administration is going to have a great deal of luck. appealing this issue. I think a lot of judges will view this as a sound decision. Now, they can cure it without a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney. They could bring in an assistant U.S. attorney who is properly commissioned in that district. They just have to get one that's willing to sign off. Keep in mind that Halegan's predecessor was reportedly effectively fired. He resigned, but he was forced out. after he supposedly objected to these indictments and said that he did not agree with the basis for these charges. So even with some AUSAs, they may have some difficulty getting a signature, but I expect that there's some that would accommodate the administration. it's also important to remember that this is just one of the rather novel issues surrounding these indictments there are pending challenges to these indictments as selective and vindictive prosecutions those are ordinarily difficult grounds to use to get rid of an indictment. I can tell you that because as a criminal defense attorney, I've tried it. But here, even the judge in this case quoted the president's earlier posting where he essentially took Pam Bondi to task for not indicting James Comey and James and John Bolton. The indictments followed shortly thereafter.

And even though the president removed that posting, the damage was done. And there are still these torpedoes in the water as to whether another judge could say, don't even worry about finding the right person to sign these indictments because there is no indictment to sign. This is all vindictive and selective prosecution. So we're still waiting for that to come down. Now, I have a question about that because I was under the impression that your social media posts can go so far, right? Is that sufficient? Is it sufficient that the president wrote a post asking for these folks to be indicted, even if he took it down? How admissible or important is that to a judge? Well, it's admissible in the sense that even Judge Curry quoted the posting at length, and it was not even particularly relevant to these procedural violations. They are exhibit number one in the challenges for vindictive and selective prosecution. Are they sufficient alone? Probably not. And you have to bet against challenges on these grounds. If there is an otherwise valid criminal allegation, if the court believes that there is a basis for a criminal charge, it historically is unlikely to say, I'm going to dismiss it based on what I see as the motivations of the prosecutor. So we'll have to see how the courts deal with that. But there is other evidence that they are citing. Because the president has previously talked about these individuals and wanting to see them prosecuted. So there is a rather long record here that will be cited. But the issue for the courts remains, do these indictments state a valid? criminal basis for prosecution when courts have generally found that basis they are leery of dismissing an indictment based on motivations okay um couple more for you this case as you know or these cases i should say involving james combe and Letitia James dismissed as you said without prejudice um meaning they pursue these cases again in a more proper manner but Does the Justice Department run into some issues, particularly in the James Comey matter, which was just days away from going beyond the statute of limitations when the case was filed? And I ask this because there's a footnote in Judge Curry's decision in which she writes, an invalid indictment cannot serve to block the door of limitations as it swings closed. Does this mean like that six-month grace period to refile the case might not apply here? Yeah, it's very hard to figure out how the court would come down on the resubmission of this case to the grand jury. Many people assume that the administration could still cure this indictment with a properly commissioned prosecutor. But that could be the next fight. I mean, the problem with...

these indictments is that they're a rather target-rich environment for defense attorneys they were rushed in with a statute of limitations that was coming to an end and it shows in the comie case the grand jury did not agree to one of the counts and issued a no true bill. And the acting U.S. attorney essentially stitched together the remaining parts and submitted that. Well, they don't exactly flow or hold together very well. So we're going to have a lot of these issues that will be in the federal court system for years. And so it's very possible that these cases will extend into the new administration. And if the next president is a Democrat, president, I expect these defendants are looking for a pardon that would put an end to all of this. And just before I let you go, of these two cases involving Letitia James and James Comey, do you think either one is stronger than the other? Do you think the Justice Department would be, you know, serving its time well to continue to pursue either case or one over the other? Well, if you consider all three of the cases that came down, including John Bolton, I would put the John Bolton indictment as the strongest of the three. And indeed, they may be adding some charges against John Bolton. So that one is the strongest of the three. James may be the second strongest if you can get out of the problem with Harrigan. The James Comey indictment is probably the weakest because it does not hold together particularly well. When the grand jury... took out that one count, there wasn't much time to clean it up. And what is left seems sort of ad hoc and improvisational. So I would list them in that order. That does not mean that ultimately they cannot go to trial on these issues. It certainly does not mean that they are innocent of the charges. The ruling by Judge Curie has really nothing to do with the merits of the case. And so Letitia James, sort of took a victory lap today, and that may be a tad premature. She needs to look at the words that follow dismissal. Those words are without prejudice. And so that means that they could potentially cure this problem and turn their attention to these other issues. Professor Turley, thank you so much for joining us. It's been my great pleasure.

The spirit of innovation is deeply ingrained in America, and Google is helping Americans innovate in ways both big and small. There are hundreds of thousands of skilled trade roles across the U.S. waiting to be filled. To help close this workforce gap, Google is expanding its skill trade support to help train more than 300,000 American workers across over 20 states. This is a new era of American innovation. Learn more at grow. Google slash skill trades. This is Ainsley Earhart. Thank you for joining me for the 52 episode podcast series, The Life of Jesus. A listening experience that will provide hope, comfort, and understanding of the greatest story ever told. Listen and follow starting November 30th on Fox News Podcasts.com. This is Jason Chaffetz with your Fox News commentary coming up. Thanksgiving is almost here, and a lot of Americans are on the move in what AAA predicts will be record holiday travel, nearly 82 million of us going somewhere at least 50 miles away, and most will drive with today. Tomorrow and Sunday the busiest times. So if you're planning your travel, think about when you depart because the afternoons of those days are going to be busier than the rest. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that at Newark, New York, New Jersey's airports. In regard to air travel, this is going to be the busiest Thanksgiving that we have on record. And the FAA predicts today will be the peak of air travel with about 52,000 flights scheduled. And after what we went through for six weeks, Many passengers like this woman at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport are nervous. With the recent government shutdown, I think we were kind of worried just in general about flying around this time and then hearing that there could be weather delays too. And there will be delays, always are, but not caused by shortages when some air traffic controllers and TSA security agents did not show up during the shutdown. I think it was a little bit of an exaggeration, and that got people all worked up. Mark Murphy. is a travel industry expert and founder of a recently launched website Travel Tube. And in reality, most people got to their destination. Some had to deal with some delays. But now that that's over and we're beyond what I call the 72 hour. domino window effect if you would which basically says that whenever there's a shutdown and air travel because of anything let's take a blizzard that blankets to northeast basically when that gets cleaned up there's about a 72 hour window to get everybody back on their way bring your sanity because even though everything's quote back to normal there's nothing normal about a holiday travel weekend and this is going to be one of the busiest we've seen in fact it's expected to be the busiest we've seen in 15 years. So with the start of it, with all these flights that are scheduled for Tuesday, what should people do? We people hear about getting to the airport two hours ahead of time. Is that still the benchmark?

Yeah, I think it's a good benchmark. One of the great little tools you can take advantage of is the My TSA app, which if you're, let's say, I'm in Fort Lauderdale. If I was going out of Fort Lauderdale, I can go look on the app, see what the average wait times are. And it also projects throughout the day what the average wait times are going to be to get through security because that's the biggest hurdle. If you have global entry in TSA precheck, it makes life a lot easier because you're going to get through a lot faster. And that means you can leave later. Now, most airports have become. some destinations unto themselves. So if you don't have those and you don't bother to download the app, get there two hours early. If you get through in 15 minutes, there's plenty of places to eat. You can walk around, do a little last minute shopping, maybe bring a little housewarming gift to the folks you're going to visit. That's the way to lower your stress level and just realize that everything takes care of itself. You will eventually get where you need to go. Just stop stressing about it. Global entry or pre-check. Should everybody do this or is this for someone who travels more? Well, for the cost over five years, it works out to about 20 bucks a year. Everybody should do it. I mean, it's a couple of Starbucks lattes these days in a month. So if you can do that over a year, 20 bucks, it's well worth it. And if you fly two or three times a year, definitely worth it. Business travelers, it's a must have. And so you just go right through. You have to go through the same securities, though. You just have a shorter line. You have a shorter line, you know, the thing with the shoes and all that other stuff that they've had, taking stuff out of your bag, you don't have to do any of that. And I know they've relaxed that as far as the shoes with the regular security, but the lines are a lot shorter because it is faster. So your wait time will be far less. Your headaches will be far less. You're not taking a bunch of stuff out. You still can't bring liquids through, right? Generally speaking. Correct. Yeah, it's like the 3.4 ounce, I think is the exact number. You guys could look that up, folks listening. But it's about three and a half ounces. Anything bigger than that's got to be in a check bag. Now, just ahead of the stressful Thanksgiving travel rush, we're being reminded of the good old days. We respected the dignity of air travel and the men and women. Who made the dream possible. That's a new Department of Transportation video promoting a return to the golden age of travel. Flying was a bastion of civility. But today... The video shows a bunch of clips of passengers fighting each other on planes or taking their anger out at employees.

And then in the video at the end, Transportation Secretary Duffy urges us to restore civility and bring our manners to the airport. Ask yourself, are you helping a pregnant woman put her bag in the overhead bin? Are you dressing with respect? Are you keeping control of your children? Are you saying thank you to your flight attendants and your pilots? Are you saying please and thank you in general? The golden age of travel. begins with you. Well, this after the FAA had reported a 400% increase in those kinds of passenger incidents and outbursts since 2019. I think it's like the Jerry Springer show live when you're at the airport. I mean, some of the things that you see are just ludicrous. And I think it's a cultural issue. I think there's so many factors. I don't think it's people stressing about travel. I think it's about people just being bad people. And unfortunately, people are very comfortable with acting out these days. And that's not going to change with that video that they put out, which I thought was kind of cool because the Golden Age of Travel. Most people couldn't travel. It was so expensive to travel before airline deregulation that it was a very, very select group of people that could actually get on a plane. I remember I didn't take my first flight until I was in college. And today you've got infants flying and two-year-olds, etc. But also you've got every... clown out there that wasn't raised properly or whatever, raised by wolves, and they feel like it's, you know, it's okay to be a complete lunatic, ignore the flight attendants, ignore the gate agents, and next thing you know, they're getting marched out of the airport in handcuffs. And I think that's how you fix it, because obviously people are going to do what people do, and it's just been crazy the last few years. I think COVID had a little bit to do with that. Yeah, certainly. But, you know, you talk about how people are traveling. The TSA has a top 10 list of the most numbers of passengers through a checkpoint in a certain day. And out of the top 10 all time, eight are this year. And the other two. were last year. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, last year was second all time. June 22nd this year was number one all time. So that's the start of summer. Around the 4th of July, we have some of the most biggest travel days. Interestingly, of the top 10 of all time, only one of them is around the Thanksgiving period. Yeah, well, that is kind of unusual because typically Thanksgiving is the busiest travel week of the year, busiest holiday travel. So I think what happens, though, is we're talking airline travel versus all forms travel. And with Thanksgiving, because of all the family connections, that's when you get 90% of people traveling by car, train, etc. So hitting the road is more so in effect during Thanksgiving than it typically is for like a fourth.

July type of celebration because that typically isn't just tied to families. Right. So this Tuesday peak day that the FAA talks about, certainly the Sunday after Thanksgiving, that could set a record this year. Yeah, it looks like it's going to. I mean, everyone's talking about, you know, how bad the economy is and everything else. We're going to have a bigger travel week this year than we had last year. We're going to have more people flying, 8% more people traveling, if you believe all the surveys that are out there via car. So, yes, it's going to be busy. And, you know, it's always funny when I hear it. how bad things are and I can't get a reservation at a restaurant and everything's packed, I start to shake my head and say, where is that data coming from and what exactly does that mean? And in the case of travel, even though airline ticket prices are up marginally this year, people still want to get out. They want to visit family and friends. They want to get away. Everyone needs to unwind and take a break here and there. And unfortunately, for those who have kids in school, they're limited to these... These spots. Thanksgiving travel, Christmas travel. So one of my best travel tips is don't go somewhere for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Travel in between those periods. Travel right after New Year's, like a week later, up until like President's Day weekend. You'll get a much better deal, especially right now over the next three weeks between Thanksgiving. and Christmas break, you're going to get some unbelievable travel deals. And that's a great way to book a last-minute cruise, a last-minute trip to Europe, whatever it is that you want to do, you're going to save, as they say, bigily. But if you can't, if you really want to be with family on Christmas, what do you recommend, if you have to travel in that time, what day is best for people planning? Well, you want to get as far away from that final rush. So if you can go, I'm not looking at a calendar right now. You'd have to remind me what day Christmas is falling on this year, because that's going to trigger what the travel craziness is. I think it's a Friday, right? Yeah. Okay. So I would get out of town by Tuesday or Wednesday. No, no, Thursday. Right. So Monday or Tuesday, get out of town. Don't, if you can travel Christmas. day in the early morning, that's going to be a good time. I would avoid traveling late on Christmas Eve because you've got the last minute shoppers. You're going to have crazy traffic. And then a couple of days later, you want to avoid that Sunday travel because a lot of people will extend that with the long weekend and come back that Sunday and go back to work on Monday. So again, just use common sense and just think about how you live your life and how people around you do. And that's going to line up pretty well. with the trends that we've seen year and year out when it comes to holiday travel. All right, Mark, you said you didn't start and have your first plane trip until you were in college. How does that turn into a career as a travel expert?

No, I just stumbled into the media business. It was a travel-focused product, became the publisher of it, and then decided after 9-11 to start my own media business focused on the travel industry and then just grew it from there. So I spent about three-plus decades doing things in travel on the media side and reporting on things and actually traveling to somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 countries in that career. You have travel to be founded. What exactly is it? Right now out of the gate travel tube.com is a platform that connects travel experts, not people like me on the media side, but... travel advisors also known as travel agents i believe they are the best source for travel information i always recommend people book with travel agents because they travel around the world they have clients they sell all all year round i basically extract information from them about their latest travels their latest experiences what their clients are trending towards etc and it creates a great place for consumers as well as other travel advisors to come into the shared knowledge base of content that can be consumed via podcast on the site or anywhere they want to consume content via all the social media channels, you name it. We think it's one of the best things you can do is get out and travel and see the world. Mark Murphy, founder of Travel Tube and Travel Expert in the Industry for decades. Great to have you on. Happy Thanksgiving to you. Thanks again. You too.

I'm Gianno Jalosi with your Fox True Crime Minute. Police capturing the so-called Slender Man Stabber after a nationwide manhunt following a dramatic escape from custody. Morgan Geyser, the Wisconsin woman, convicted in the 2014 Slender Man Stabbing, was taken into custody Sunday night after escaping from a group home on Saturday. The 23-year-old cut off a GPS monitoring bracelet before breaking out. Police say she was found at a truck stop just 20 miles outside of Chicago with another person who was also taken into custody. Geiser had just entered the... group home in March after being granted a conditional release from a mental health institution that she'd been in for the last seven years. In 2014, investigators say the 12-year-old and another student nearly killed one of their middle school classmates. The girls lured the victim into the woods with a game of hide-and-seek before stabbing her 19 times to please a horror character called Slender Man. The victim survived the attack. There's more on the story at foxnews.com or subscribe to the Fox True Crime podcast. I'm Gianna Jalosi with your Fox True Crime Minute. Even if you're using topical prescription creams for your child's eczema, you still might be hearing this. That relentless itching that makes them want to scratch and scratch and scratch and scratch. When they're moderate to severe eczema isn't well controlled, it's time to ask about DuPixant, dipylamab, which isn't a cream, steroid, or immunosuppressant. DuPixant helps kids as young as six months stay ahead of their eczema, with clearer skin and noticeably less itch. Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of new or worsening eye problems like eye pain or vision changes, skin symptoms, joint aches in pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor. DuPixant helps your child feel the heel. Ask your child's eczema specialist. Visit duPixant.com or call 1844 DuPixant. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at the quiz. Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz. Subscribe to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. It's time for your Fox News commentary. Jason Chafetz. What's on your mind? The United States of America is the greatest country on the face of the planet. It is absolutely amazing that next year we will be celebrating our 250th anniversary. So as we come up in the next couple of days to Thanksgiving, we as a nation have a lot to be thankful for. I'm thankful for those who have gone before us, who fought for this nation, who laid the foundation, who built the infrastructure, came up with the innovative ideas, and went to war to protect our way of life. I'm thankful for my predecessors who have laid the idea and the notion that freedom and liberty and love of country is something good and worth fighting for and passing on to the next generation.

And I'm also thankful that in today's day and age, it is absolutely amazing how much the world has changed, sometimes for the bad, but mostly for the good. I look at where technology is and how that has changed fundamentally the world, the ability to communicate with our family members or friends from a world away instantaneously on our phone. Truly amazing stuff. But this day, this time, when we sit down on Thanksgiving on Thursday, I will also be thinking of those people who are serving our nation and our armed services. And it is our first responders. People who are maybe overseas or in our backyards who are having to work that day, one of the best things I got to do as a member of Congress was to go out on one of the ships there in the Arabian Sea. away from their families protecting the United States of America. We have a lot of people who aren't able to be with their family, maybe missing their family, maybe dealing with the loss of a loved one and are lonely this holiday. But I hope we can all say a prayer, thankful for the blessings of the United States of America, all the prosperity we've been able to create. but that we can also do our part not just on Thursday and just not on Thanksgiving, but as a nation, to remain as a nation very thankful to be living in the greatest country on the face of the planet, the United States of America. I'm Jason Javits, Fox News contributor and host of the Jason in the House podcast.

You've been listening to the Fox News Rundown. And now, stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. Listen ad-free on Fox News Podcasts plus on Apple Podcasts. And Prime members can listen to the show ad-free on Amazon music. And for up-to-the-minute news, go to foxnews.com. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of Unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms.