A federal magistrate judge on Monday raised the possibility that the indictment against former FBI director James Comey on charges of lying to Congress — which was obtained at the behest of President Donald Trump — could soon be dismissed because of potential “misconduct” by the prosecution. The suggestion by Judge William Fitzpatrick came as he ordered the Department of Justice to release all grand jury material related to Comey’s case to him by the end of the day. Comey’s defense lawyers had requested that material in order to move that the indictment be tossed based on alleged irregularities by interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan when she presented the case to the grand jury and asked it to charge him. Fitzpatrick said Halligan had potentially violated court orders and Comey’s Fourth Amendment rights, which “establish a reasonable basis to question whether the government’s conduct was willful or in reckless disregard of the law.” “The facts set forth herein and the particularized findings of the Court establish that ‘ground[s] may exist to dismiss the indictment because of a matter that occurred before the grand jury,’” Fitzpatrick wrote in his ruling in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia…Read more