Justice Department says full grand jury in James Comey case didn't review copy of final indictment

[onenote]

9. I don't think the foreperson viewed it as a "false" indictment

The full grand jury reviewed and approved two of the three counts on the indictment put in front of them, confirming that by attaching the standard "non concurrence" form marked to indicate non concurrence only with respect to count 1. The second version of the indictment repeated counts 2 and 3, albeit renumbered to reflect the deletion of count one, without any changes in those counts. It was a procedural error for Halligan not to present the corrected indictment or to file a motion to have the court correct it, but it wasn't a substantive error and I would be shocked if the judged treats it as grounds for dismissing the indictment. There are a number of precedents establishing that a change to an indictment that narrows the defendant's liability is permissible, so long as the remaining allegations state an offense and give the defendant notice of the charges he must be prepared to meet. Because counts 2 and 3, albeit renumbered, are identical to those counts as presented in the 3 count indictment that the full grand jury voted on, the court seems likely, I believe, to treat this as a harmless, correctable error.

Just trying to prepare folks not to be shocked or disappointed. For what its worth, I think the judge can and should dismiss the indictment on grounds that are not correctable and less likely to be reversed on appeal -- specifically Halligan misleading the grand jury regarding Comey's rights and also for malicious and vindictive prosecution.