Overview
- U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found the Justice Department’s September 2025 re-search of Daniel Richman’s data warrantless and “manifestly unconstitutional.”
- Prosecutors must return Richman’s electronic files, which the court said were handled with “callous disregard,” after years of retention from a leak probe that ended without charges.
- A copy of the data will be held under seal in the Eastern District of Virginia, allowing prosecutors to seek a new, lawful warrant, and the judge declined to bar them from pursuing leads already learned.
- The decision complicates DOJ efforts to refile charges against James Comey after a Virginia judge last month vacated his indictment, ruling prosecutor Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully appointed.
- The disputed materials stem from a 2017 device image and 2019–2020 warrants, and recent TROs and critical rulings by judges in Washington and Virginia have repeatedly constrained the investigation.