A Trump-appointed prosecutor tried to claim that a series of messages to a reporter criticizing her coverage had been “off the record.” But she was too late.
Lindsey Halligan, a former insurance lawyer who Trump appointed as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in September, had reached out to Lawfare Senior Editor Anna Bower earlier this month, Bower revealed Monday.
The topic was Bower’s coverage—more specifically, her X posts about what The New York Times had already reported—about Halligan’s prosecution of Attorney General Letitia James, one of President Donald Trump’s perceived political enemies.
James is accused of misrepresenting the purpose of a second property she owns, this one in Virginia, by allegedly telling lenders it would be a “second home” but using it as a “rental investment property” instead.
James has denied wrongdoing, and calls the charges “baseless” and “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”
Halligan, Bower writes, did not preface her comments with anything “suggesting that she was not ‘on the record.’” It was only after Bower reached out to the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs on Monday with a series of questions about the prosecution and Halligan’s communications with her that Halligan tried to claim that everything she had shared was unusable.
“By the way—everything I ever sent you is off record,“ Halligan texted Bower via Signal, on which Halligan had chosen to have messages deleted after eight hours. ”You’re not a journalist so it’s weird saying that but just letting you know.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s not how this works,” Bower replied, according to screenshots of the conversation. “You don’t get to say that in retrospect.”
Halligan insisted: “Yes, I do. Off record.”
“I am really sorry. I would have been happy to speak with you on an off the record basis had you asked,” Bower responded. “But you didn’t ask, and I still haven’t agreed to speak on that basis. Do you have any further comment for the story?”
Halligan then claimed it was “obvious” that the entire conversation was off-record.
“There’s disappearing messages and it’s on signal. What is your story? You never told me about a story,” she wrote.
Bower then published the story.
“You clearly didn’t get the response you wanted—which was information handed over to you without having to dig into the facts of the case to craft a truthful story—so you thought you’d ‘tattletale’ to main justice,” the Justice Department’s statement to Bower read.
“Lindsay [sic] Halligan was attempting to point you to facts, not gossip, but when clarifying that she would adhere to the rule of the law and not disclose Grand Jury information, you threaten to leak an entire conversation. Good luck ever getting anyone to talk to you when you publish their texts.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the DOJ and the White House asking whether Halligan knows how “off the record” works and if she plans on continuing to talk with reporters.
Bower writes that she sought specifics from Halligan about what exactly the problem was with her Oct. 11 posts about the Times’ story.
NYT reports that Letitia James’s great niece lives in the home that is the subject of the indictment. The niece reportedly testified before a *different* grand jury, telling them that she had lived there for many years without paying rent. James visits regularly. pic.twitter.com/KQcfUenP5P
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) October 11, 2025
After several exchanges, Bower wrote to Halligan that she wasn’t sure what Halligan believed was incorrect “about the NY Times account or my summary of it.” Halligan then responded:
“You’re biased. Your reporting isn’t accurate. I’m the one handling the case and I’m telling you that. If you want to twist and torture the facts to fit your narrative, there’s nothing I can do. Waste to even give you a heads up.”
The New York Times has defended its story.
“We’re confident in the accuracy of our reporting,” a spokesperson told Lawfare. “The DOJ declined to comment before publication and has not raised any concerns with us since the story was published more than a week ago.”
Additionally, Bower notes that Halligan’s unsolicited messages “seemed uncharacteristically risky for a government lawyer.”
Before being appointed to prosecute James and former FBI Director James Comey, Halligan, a former Miss Colorado USA beauty pageant contestant, had never tried a case. Seasoned prosecutors felt there wasn’t merit to either cases.
Bower, on CNN’s The Source later Monday night, likewise said it was “really strange” that Halligan reached out on the topic.
“I would have been happy to speak with her off the record—had she suggested it,” Bower added. “But she did not do that, so I was very surprised when she suddenly suggested that things were off the record when they, in fact, were not.”
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