DOJ vets led by ‘Republican for Kamala’ draft filing to back Comey against ‘vindictive prosecution’

Justice Department alumni– led by a Bush-era DOJ leader who endorsed Kamala Harris against Donald Trump in 2024 and by a former member of special counsel Jack Smith’s team — are recruiting signatories for a court filing to defend fired FBI Director James Comey against a “vindictive prosecution” as he faces charges of lying to Congress about authorizing media leaks.

Just the News obtained a recruitment email written by Peter Keisler, a former assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush who backed Harris over Trump last year, with the email saying that “I’m reaching out about an amicus brief that several Department alumni have worked together to draft in the case involving James Comey, in support of his anticipated motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground of vindictive prosecution.”

The indictment sought by the Trump Justice Department and approved by a grand jury last month stems from allegations that Comey misled the Senate during his testimony in late September 2020, when he reiterated his May 2017 denial that he had never authorized an FBI leak of information to the media about the Trump-Russia investigation or Hillary Clinton-related investigations. The indictment also alleged that Comey had obstructed Congress by lying to the Senate.

Comey has pleaded not guilty.

Keisler had previously signed an open letter along with “over 100 Republican national security leaders” in September 2024 supporting then-Vice President Kamala Harris in her unsuccessful race against then-candidate and now-President Donald Trump.

“We believe that the President of the United States must be a principled, serious, and steady leader who can advance and defend American security and values, strengthen our alliances, and protect our democracy,” the open letter last year said. “We expect to disagree with Kamala Harris on many domestic and foreign policy issues, but we believe that she possesses the essential qualities to serve as President and Donald Trump does not. We therefore support her election to be President.”

The new Comey-related recruitment email from Keisler added that “we believe a bipartisan brief from former DOJ officials can play a significant role in the case by demonstrating to the Court, and the broader public, the depth and breadth of concern among those who served at the Department with the circumstances that led to this indictment.”

Keisler’s goal is to collect signatures for an amicus brief – or friend of the court filing with the federal judge – to help Comey with getting the charges against him dismissed.

Keisler is a member of the Resistance-style Washington Litigation Group which launched in August and says its mission is to “represent individuals and institutions who have been unlawfully targeted for exercising their rights, and we bring affirmative litigation to curb governmental overreach.”

He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Just the News.

Of the three other lawyers from the Washington Litigation Group who were carbon copied on Keisler’s recruitment effort, one of them was James Pearce, a Trump critic and former federal prosecutor whose biography states that he “managed a team of appellate attorneys assisting prosecutions related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021” and “litigated the first-ever federal prosecutions of a former President as an Assistant Special Counsel to Special Counsel Jack Smith.”

The new litigation firm, which launched this summer to oppose Trump Administration efforts, in August fought to block the Trump Justice Department from removing Tara Twomey as the director of the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees, in September worked to defend the liberal-leaning outlet Media Matters against a Federal Trade Commission investigation, and in October sought to assist in efforts to disqualify Trump-appointee Alina Habba from serving as the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey.

The indictment against Comey was brought last month by interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan. The former personal Trump lawyer and Trump White House aide replaced Erik S. Siebert, who resigned days before the indictments were announced, allegedly under pressure from the Trump administration to bring charges against Comey.

“On or about September 30, 2020, in the Eastern District of Virginia, the defendant, JAMES B. COMEY JR., did willfully and knowingly make a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch of the Government of the United States, by falsely stating to a U.S. Senator during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that he, JAMES B. COMEY JR., had not ‘authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports’ regarding an FBI investigation concerning PERSON 1,” the indictment states.

Sources familiar with the matter confirmed that “Person 1” is Hillary Clinton. The sources declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of the investigation.

The indictment goes on to say that Comey’s leak authorization denial “was false, because, as JAMES B. COMEY JR. then and there knew, he in fact had authorized PERSON 3 to serve as an anonymous source in news reports regarding an FBI investigation concerning PERSON 1.”

The allegation that “Person 3” is longtime Comey friend and former FBI special government employee Daniel Richman came after multiple news articles had apparently suggested that the person in question whom Comey had allegedly authorized to leak had been former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. The sources familiar with the matter stated that “Person 3” is in fact Richman. 

Both Richman and Comey’s current defense lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, were previously linked to the Comey Memo leak saga following the firing of Comey by Trump in May 2017. Fitzgerald has signaled to the court that he will be filing a “vindictive prosecution” motion on his client’s behalf in an effort to get the case thrown out before the trial starts in January.