By Andy Brack
In a week of explosive news that saw the end of the nation’s longest government shutdown and the release of 20,000 pages of documents that may take down a president, you might have missed a really interesting story about a South Carolina federal judge.
It seems that Senior U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie of Columbia is doing special duty in a Washington case of great import to the nation. She’s looking into a critical issue involving the prosecution of two of President Donald Trump’s foes: Former FBI Director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
At issue is whether Trump loyalist Lindsay Halligan, the novice interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia appointed after her predecessor refused to indict the two, should be a federal prosecutor at all. Lawyers for Comey and James say her appointment violated federal laws related to interim appointments, which the Justice Department denies.
So Currie, first appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994 after serving as a chief deputy state attorney general and federal prosecutor, has been brought in to referee the issue before the case really gets going. And the whole thing is important, legal analysts say, because it calls into question whether a president can install loyalists to prosecute political foes through interim appointments to bypass congressional oversight.
What’s particularly interesting in the cases against the former director and current New York attorney general is how quickly Halligan, who had no prosecutorial experience, got indictments, according to The Washington Post: “In both cases, Halligan pursued the charges over objections from career prosecutors in her office who had concluded there was insufficient evidence to support them. She presented the cases to the grand jury herself.”
And this is where everything gets extra delicious if you know anything about Cam Currie’s career: She knows exactly how grand juries work. Why? Because she ran the South Carolina State Grand Jury for five years until she became a federal judge.
As a lawyer and a judge with 31 years of experience on the bench, she knows how the system is supposed to work. When you realize the core value of her legal career has been a lifelong commitment to the rule of law, you may better understand her stalwart support and belief in due process, legal standards, accountability and making sure that no one – no government, institution or individual – is above the law. So you can see where we may be headed.
Through the years, Currie’s record has shown a commitment to fairness, due process and the rule of law. In 2009, she ruled the state of South Carolina couldn’t have a cross and the phrase “I believe” on license plates because it was a First Amendment violation. In 2023, she ruled that the conservative Freedom Caucus had to be treated like other legislative caucuses when it came to rules on organizing, fundraising and elections. Most recently, she oversaw a 2025 case involving R.J. May, a former Lexington County legislator who pleaded guilty to five counts of distributing child sexual abuse material. She’ll sentence him in January.
“Currie’s record reflects a consistent emphasis on procedural rigor and adherence to established legal standards,” according to a Newsweek profile.
It’s anybody’s guess where the cases against Comey and James will end up. But skepticism by Currie about Halligan’s appointment came through clearly at one point Thursday when she seemed to catch Justice Department lawyers in hypocrisy. In Halligan’s case, they’ve been arguing her appointment as prosecutor was proper. But in a past case involving special prosecutor Jack Smith, appointed to investigate Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, they took the opposite position in trying to disqualify him.
A ruling is expected by Thanksgiving. If Halligan is disqualified or the cases are thrown out for some legal reason, one message may become clear – the Justice Department should be off limits to presidents and they shouldn’t use it to seek revenge.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send it to feedback@statehousereport.com.
