Benjamin Wittes
benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With The Situation on Wednesday commented on President Trump’s falling approval numbers. Yesterday, a magistrate judge in the Eastern District of Virginia issued a startling 24-page opinion—or, rather, an opinion that should be startling to a reader not already inured to the combination of misconduct and incompetence that is the stock and trade of the president’s hand-picked prosecutor for his political foes. The decision by Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick—whom you are not to confuse with James Comey’s defense attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald—ordered the release of the grand jury transcripts in the Comey case to the Comey defense team. In and of itself, this outcome is not a surprise. Judge Fitzpatrick had tried to do this once before, during a hearing on Nov. 5—only to have the government appeal and the district court kick the matter back to him “to analyze whether there are particularized and factually based grounds for disclosure.”
Published: November 18, 2025 4:45 pm
Source: Lawfare — Read original