Attorneys for former FBI Director James B. Comey sought Monday to throw out an indictment accusing him of lying to Congress, arguing that President Donald Trump engineered the charges to retaliate against a vocal critic.

In a pair of motions , the attorneys argue U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was improperly appointed and should not be able to bring the charges, and those charges are a vindictive and selective prosecution brought at the direction of the president.

The motions called the Justice Department’s appointment of Halligan contrary to a federal law and a “paradigmatic violation” of the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, which requires the Senate consent to the appointment of some officials.

Halligan was the only government official to sign a two-count grand jury indictment

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