Outrage Explodes After Senate Republicans Cling To Old Rules, Save Notorious Dems– trendingpoliticsnews.com

A federal judge’s decision to toss the indictments against former FBI boss James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James has exposed an embarrassing failure on Capitol Hill, where Senate Republicans clung to a dusty procedural tradition that wound up blowing up two high-profile cases.

The ruling rested on the Senate’s use of the “blue slip” custom, a nearly century-old courtesy that lets home-state senators block federal nominees. Instead of scrapping what critics say has become a partisan choke point, Republicans — led by Sen. Chuck Grassley — stuck to the practice and watched it boomerang.

Grassley’s refusal to move past the blue slip stalled the confirmation of Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-picked prosecutor who led both cases. Because Halligan was never confirmed, the judge ruled she couldn’t legally handle the prosecutions, leaving the Justice Department sidelined by Senate inertia rather than the strength of the evidence.