Barbara McQuade

But it is not some line prosecutor in the office who goes in and does the work, as is often the case, almost always the case, to present the case to the grand jury, to sign off on the indictment.

She and she alone is the one who goes into the grand jury room and she and she alone is the one who signs the indictment.

During the eight years I served as a U.S.

attorney, do you know how many indictments I signed?

Zero.

That's because there are line prosecutors steeped in the details of those cases who are the ones who present the case and sign the indictment.

It is very telling to me that instead we had Lindsay Halligan doing all of this work.

So Cruz was asking Comey about testimony he gave in 2017

In response to a question from Senator Chuck Grassley.

And so when Grassley asked the question, he asked if Comey had ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation.

Now, it's a little unclear what was being discussed when he talked about Clinton investigation.

Was that the email server or was that the Clinton Foundation?

So that alone makes it tricky.

But Cruz botches it in 2020 because he doesn't say Clinton investigation.

He says Clinton administration.

My guess is it is this tangle that is causing other prosecutors to say this case is a mess and can't be charged.

And I think as a result, it really clutters a case where a jury is going to be asked to find unanimously guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

So the other flaw with this case is, as you said, Cruz is going back to 2017 and asking about a question that was asked by Senator Chuck Grassley at that time.

And the reason I imagine they use the 2020 restatement as opposed to the 2017 statement is because the statute of limitations is only five years.

And so it's too late to charge for the 2017 thing.