The Justice Department mounted a forceful challenge on Tuesday to a federal judge’s order restricting its access to evidence it views as essential to recharging former FBI Director James Comey, accusing Comey’s longtime associate and onetime attorney Daniel Richman of using a calculated legal maneuver to obstruct a renewed criminal case.

In a 20-page filing, government attorneys urged U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to dissolve the temporary restraining order she imposed over the weekend, telling the court the order has already “effectively enjoined the government from investigating and potentially prosecuting Comey.” They argued that Richman’s petition for the return or destruction of his seized records is not a legitimate property request but a deliberate attempt to derail a continuing criminal matter in violation of well-established precedent.