The New York City Bar Association issued a stark repudiation of the U.S. Justice Department indictment of former FBI Director James Comey last week in a statement warning the prosecution is flouting the rule of law.
“The indictment of former FBI Director James Comey is the latest—and most troubling—action by a Justice Department increasingly wielded as the personal instrument of the President of the United States,” the bar association wrote in a public statement issued September 29.“The circumstances surrounding this indictment reflect a profound betrayal of the American principle of prosecutorial independence and discretion.”
With the statement, coming after the indictment was announced on Sept. 25, the local bar association joins other national associations that have characterized the prosecution as a politically motivated act that runs afoul of the justice department’s independence.
The city bar said the prosecution defied neutral legal standards of bringing forward a case. Multiple reports found that career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia—the impartial professionals charged with applying the law “without fear or favor”— found insufficient evidence to support charges against Comey.
President Trump subsequently demanded Comey be prosecuted, citing personal grievances, according to reports. Staff who resisted the indictment were reportedly removed and the president installed Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan, formerly one of the president’s personal attorneys, to secure the indictment in less than a week.
“That sequence—presidential directive, dismissal of professionals, installation of a replacement, and swift indictment—is the anatomy of a political prosecution,” the city bar statement read. “It is not independence, but submission.”
Citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the city bar argued that prosecutions motivated by retaliation or selective enforcement are unconstitutional. The statement concluded with a forceful demand for action, calling the indictment a “stark warning.”
“The rule of law is not an abstraction… Without the rule of law, liberty cannot endure,” the statement asserts. “The justice system must never be used as a weapon of politics. Speaking out now is not optional. It is our collective duty.”
