James Comey won a significant procedural victory when a federal judge ruled that the DOJ unlawfully accessed files from his longtime friend and former lawyer Daniel Richman, finding that a warrantless search of Richman’s devices violated Comey’s Fourth Amendment rights and ordering the seized materials placed under seal in the Eastern District of Virginia to tightly restrict their use without further judicial approval.The decision throws a new legal obstacle in front of prosecutors who are weighing whether to reindict Comey on charges of obstruction of a congressional proceeding and making a false statement to Congress over his handling of FBI investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, a case that already collapsed once after Lindsey Halligan’s interim appointment was deemed invalid.The ruling lands amid Donald Trump’s broader effort to bend the FBI and federal law enforcement to his will after he fired Comey in 2017 for refusing to pledge personal loyalty and halt the Michael Flynn inquiry, with Trump allies such as Pam Bondi amplifying political pressure on prosecutors even as the former FBI director’s courtroom showdown becomes a symbol of what critics call a retaliatory "show trial."