A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department (DOJ) to return data seized in 2017 from a close friend of former FBI Director James Comey. The ruling, issued Friday, concludes that the agency violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the individual during the search and seizure.

The data was taken from the home and electronic devices of Bruce Ohr, a former associate deputy attorney general at the Justice Department and a long-time friend of Comey. Ohr had previously worked with Comey at the FBI. The DOJ obtained a warrant to search Ohr's home and electronic devices in 2017 as part of an investigation into alleged contacts between Russian officials and individuals associated with the Trump presidential campaign.

Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the DOJ failed to adequately explain the scope of the warrant and did not sufficiently limit the search to materials directly related to the Russian interference investigation. He stated that the government’s actions exceeded the bounds of the warrant and constituted an unlawful search.

The judge's order requires the DOJ to return all seized materials except for a limited set of documents that he determined were clearly within the scope of the original warrant. The ruling represents a significant setback for the Justice Department in its handling of the investigation and raises questions about the procedures followed during the search.

Bruce Ohr has maintained that he fully cooperated with authorities and that his contacts with Russian officials were purely professional and did not involve any wrongdoing. The case highlights ongoing scrutiny of the DOJ's actions during the early stages of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and its potential impact on the Trump administration.