James Comey's lawyers defeated the government's demand for a sweeping protective order, convincing the presiding judge that such restrictions would have "unnecessarily" hindered and delayed the former FBI director's "ability to defend himself" and prepare for trial.

U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff agreed that ensuring a fair trial is critically important, and even "share[d] the government's concern regarding the possibility of inappropriate dissemination of sensitive information," but he decided that the balance tipped in Comey's favor.

The judge noted that the late U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, Paul Manafort's trial judge in the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA), did not sign off on a protective order lacking specificity that would have thrown an "unnecessarily broad cloa

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