Judge cites 'profound investigative missteps' in Comey case, orders grand jury materials released

Federal magistrate in Alexandria finds FBI agent testified after viewing potentially privileged evidence, says prosecutor made statements that 'could reasonably' show constitutional error

A federal magistrate judge at the Alexandria Division courthouse ordered the full disclosure of grand jury materials to former FBI Director James B. Comey Jr.’s defense team Monday, citing what he called a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” that could lead to dismissal of the indictment.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William E. Fitzpatrick issued the 24-page memorandum opinion from the Albert V. Bryan U.S. Courthouse, granting Comey’s legal team access to all transcripts, audio recordings and exhibits from grand jury proceedings that led to his indictment on charges of making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.

The ruling marks a rare breach of grand jury secrecy, which is typically protected under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e). Fitzpatrick acknowledged the extraordinary nature of the remedy but said the government’s conduct in the Alexandria case warranted disclosure.

“The record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

The government filed an emergency motion for a stay hours after the order was issued.

Fitzpatrick’s order delivered a scathing account of what he described as the government’s mishandling of evidence, including a potential Fourth Amendment violation in how materials were obtained and reviewed.

The case is being prosecuted by interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, a former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump who was appointed after Trump ousted the previous U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik S. Siebert. The office is headquartered on Jamieson Avenue in Alexandria.

According to court documents, the case centers on search warrants executed in 2019 and 2020 on devices belonging to Daniel Richman, a Columbia Law School professor and Comey’s personal friend and former attorney. The government obtained the warrants as part of a separate investigation in the District of Columbia called Arctic Haze, which examined alleged unauthorized disclosure of classified information.

FBI agents in September 2025 reviewed materials seized during the earlier investigation without obtaining a new warrant, despite the new investigation focusing on different charges against a different target. An agent who had been exposed to potentially privileged communications between Comey and Richman subsequently testified before an Alexandria grand jury — the only witness to do so.

Fitzpatrick found the agent knew the evidence he reviewed “may have been attorney-client privileged or confidential information,” according to the order.

The judge identified multiple grounds for concern:

— The government’s failure to properly segregate materials seized under the original warrants from non-responsive items
— The review of five-year-old evidence without new judicial authorization
— The government’s decision to allow an agent exposed to privileged information to testify before the grand jury
— Two statements by Halligan to grand jurors that “could reasonably form the basis for the defense to challenge whether the grand jury proceedings were infected with constitutional error”

Fitzpatrick also noted irregularities in how the indictment was returned at the Alexandria courthouse. An Alexandria grand jury initially rejected one count of a three-count indictment, but a modified two-count version was returned to the court the same evening. The transcript and audio recording provided to the court do not reflect any additional proceedings after the grand jury began deliberating on the first version.

“Either way, this unusual series of events...calls into question the presumption of regularity generally associated with grand jury proceedings,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

The judge also found that “the entirety of the grand jury proceedings was not provided to the court.”

Comey was indicted Sept. 25 by the Alexandria grand jury on charges stemming from his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020, which referenced earlier testimony from 2017. Prosecutors had sought an additional charge of making false statements, but the grand jury returned only the two charges.

Trump publicly urged U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey.

Comey pleaded not guilty Oct. 8 at the Alexandria courthouse.

U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff, a President Joe Biden appointee who sits in Alexandria, initially ordered the materials turned over, but the process was halted when the government challenged the order. Nachmanoff then remanded the case to Fitzpatrick, who in 2022 was selected on merit by a panel of U.S. District judges in the Eastern District of Virginia to hold the magistrate position for eight years.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gabriel J. Diaz and N. Tyler Lemons, both members of the North Carolina bar practicing in Alexandria, are prosecuting the case alongside Halligan.

Fitzpatrick ordered the clerk of court to make the sealed grand jury materials available to Comey’s defense team by 3 p.m. Monday and directed prosecutors to produce the complete audio recording by 5 p.m.

Comey’s legal team is simultaneously fighting Halligan’s appointment as unlawful.

The case continues in the Alexandria Division of the Eastern District of Virginia.