New York Attorney General Letitia James plans to argue in court that Donald Trump unlawfully appointed the prosecutor who obtained her indictment.
James’ lawyers, in a court filing Thursday obtained by Reuters, told the judge in the case the charges against her should be dropped due to the circumstances of Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as U.S. Attorney in Eastern Virginia.
James, who is charged with one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a bank over a mortgage on a second property of hers in Norfolk, Virginia, is scheduled to be arraigned there on Friday. She has denied wrongdoing.
Donald Trump appointed Halligan, a 36-year-old former personal attorney of his and Miss Colorado beauty pageant contestant, to her role after federal prosecutors felt investigations into James and former FBI Director James Comey hadn’t resulted in enough evidence to secure a conviction.
The 79-year-old president, who has publicly stated his desire to target each, pushed those prosecutors out and brought in Halligan.
Halligan, who didn’t have any prosecutorial experience upon her appointment, was not joined by any other prosecutors when she presented the investigations into James and Comey to a grand jury.
Comey was indicted last month on the charge of making a false statement and obstructing Congress. He too is challenging the legality of Halligan’s appointment.
James’ attorneys on Thursday made other comments about Halligan. In the court filing, they requested that Halligan—or any other prosecutor who joins the case—be appropriately punished for making statements about the case outside the court and legal filings.
On Monday, a reporter for Lawfare described a series of messages she had received from Halligan in which the Trump appointee criticized her social media posts about the James case. Halligan tried to claim—after the fact—that her messages were all off the record.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the DOJ and James’ office for comment.
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