CROPPED FILE PHOTO: Lawyers for former U.S. President Donald Trump; James Trusty, Lindsey Halligan and John Rowley, depart the U.S. Justice Department after meeting with Justice Department officials over the Trump Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, after Trump's lawyers last month sent the department a letter asking for a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, in Washington, U.S. June 5, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah Lynch/File Photo

A federal judge dismissed the criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Leticia James after deciding Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. Attorney who brought the case, was unlawfully appointed.

Judge Cameron Currie ruled that the appointment of Halligan was invalid, which in turn made the indictment against Comey and James invalid. This ruling is a significant win for Comey and James, though the Justice Department may appeal.

"Both cases are now dismissed without prejudice," writes Politico's senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney on X.

Comey was indicted for false statements and obstruction related to 2020 Senate testimony, while James was indicted on charges of bank fraud and false statements to a financial institution. Both pleaded not guilty.

MSNOW senior legal reporter Lisa Rubin says "This is a dismissal without prejudice, which means that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has an important choice before it. There's a federal statute that allows a case that has been time-barred but is dismissed for other reasons to be brought again within a six month period of time."

Rubin explains that if they bring the case against Comey again, "it also means that if they do that they don't get a chance to appeal the ruling with respect to the lawfulness of Halligan's appointment."

And it's not just that Halligan can't remain in her position, Rubin explains.

"It's [also] that Attorney General Pam Bondi and the president can not do this again," she says. "They're not entitled to use this same procedural process, but rather, the district judges of the Eastern District of Virginia under the statute in place are entitled to nominate and choose somebody of their own selection now going forward."

Only after a new US attorney is appointed can they decide whether to bring charges against Comey or James again, Rubin says.

"Again, the US attorney's office, whoever it's going to be led by in the future — its not going to be Halligan, it looks like — will have to make a choice in the Comey case whether to appeal or whether to try and file these charges again and still deal with some of the same motions to dismiss that Comey has also brought," Rubin explains.

"If they were to bring the case again, you'd have to imagine that Comey and his legal team, led by Pat Fitzgerald, would bring those same motions yet again," she adds.

Legal affairs reporter Fallon Gallagher notes that the dismissal isn't a full victory for either team as both teams asked for the cases to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning they can still be brought to trial again.

"This is a procedural victory, it's not a substantive victory," says MSNOW intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian. "So James Comey is no doubt happy this is happening, but assuming the indictment gets refiled with a different US attorney, he's still going to have a legal battle on his hands."

"But it does underscore that Donald Trump has been playing games with the appointments clause in all these cases for a long time and it's finally caught up to him," he adds.

"From the first sentence of the decision, the judge is decrying what has happened as outlandish and pleading for normalcy. This is embarrassing for the administration and surely opens the door for other cases that the court may just rule against," USA Today's DC bureau chief Susan Page says of the ruling.