As DOJ seeks to recharge Comey, judge deprives prosecutors from accessing key evidence for now

Then-FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill on May 3, 2017. Carolyn Kaster/AP

In a major win for former FBI Director James Comey in the Justice Department’s continued attempts to prosecute him , a judge is depriving federal investigators from accessing central evidence in the case for the foreseeable future.

The federal judge’s ruling late Friday says investigators must return electronic data they kept from Comey’s friend and former lawyer Daniel Richman immediately, calling the search that led to the data “manifestly unconstitutional.”

The evidence was first gathered more than five years ago in a leak investigation that resulted in no charges. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the DC District Court found Friday that the Justice Department had accessed the evidence uncon