Clownshow! United States Prosecutors Humiliated
"Puppet of president"
"Trump strong-armed top Justice Department officials"
"Slapdash prosecution"
"Remarkable moment"
"Judge stunned"
"Spectacle"
"Tense courtroom"
"Excruciatingly awkward hearing"
"Prosecutors peppered, unnerved"
"Told her to sit down"
"Did not go over well"
"Not ready to let him go"
"No one else would take the job"
He [Comey's lawyer Michael R. Dreeben] also pointed out that Ms. Halligan had brought the charges at Mr. Trump’s command, an assertion that the judge appeared to agree with.
“So Ms. Halligan was the stalking horse, or to use a different word — a puppet — for the president?” Judge Nachmanoff asked.
When Mr. Lemons rose to provide his own presentation, the judge seemed less susceptible to his arguments.
He said, for instance, that Ms. Halligan — who was no “puppet,” he insisted — had made her own evaluation of the case and came to a decision to charge Mr. Comey regardless of the pressure brought on her by Mr. Trump.
Judge Nachmanoff appeared skeptical of that assertion, reminding Mr. Lemons that Ms. Halligan had sought the indictment days after taking the job of U.S. attorney. That, the judge went on, did not give her much time for deliberation.
There was a similar back-and-forth about Mr. Trump’s online post directing Ms. Bondi to bring charges. Mr. Lemons claimed that Ms. Halligan did not interpret the presidential message as an order to do anything — another claim that did not go over well.
Shortly after, Mr. Lemons brought his presentation to an end, thanking the judge and moving toward his seat. But the judge was not ready to let him go.
“I have a couple more questions,” he said before he started in on his inquiries about Ms. Halligan’s time in the grand jury.
