"Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued an order that - if DOJ abides by it - should have the effect of forcing DOJ to do what they should have done in the first place before charging Jim Comey: Obtain a warrant for materials it claims supports their imagined crime. At first, this looks like a tidy solution - and ( as Politico notes) it may well present unbridgeable barriers to a renewed indictment of Jim Comey in EDVA, to say nothing of the Grand Conspiracy in SDFL."
"[T]he Court shall further ORDER that, before returning the covered materials to Petitioner Richman, the Government may create one complete electronic copy of those materials and deposit that copy, under seal, with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which shall have supervisory authority over access to this material, for future access pursuant to a lawful search warrant and judicial order."
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered a procedure requiring the government to obtain a lawful search warrant before using seized materials allegedly supporting charges against Jim Comey. The order requires DOJ to destroy all copies of Dan Richman's data in its possession while allowing the government to deposit a single sealed electronic copy with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The EDVA court will supervise access and may allow Petitioner Richman an opportunity to move to quash any future warrant. The order is presented as a balance between Richman's privacy and the government's prosecutorial interests, but questions remain about its justice and fairness.
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