The nightmare goes on for former White House aide Lindsey Halligan, President Donald Trump’s embattled pick to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
More than six weeks after a judge threw out Halligan’s indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York state Attorney General Letitia James on the grounds that she was illegally serving as interim U.S. Attorney, Halligan is still signing indictments as the office’s lead prosecutor, according to a bombshell court filing.
Federal Judge David Novak, who was appointed by Trump, issued an order Tuesday demanding that Halligan “explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement.”
Novak wrote that although the government had appealed the ruling that nullified Halligan’s appointment, the appeals court had not issued a stay in the case, meaning the original decision remained “binding precedent in this district” while the appeals process played out.
The Richmond-area judge also noted that he had issued the order of his own initiative, as opposed to at the request of a defense counsel, and gave Halligan seven days to respond.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
The move comes after several judges in the district told prosecutors in open court that they didn’t think Halligan’s name should be on new criminal case filings, such as guilty plea documents and indictments.
In Comey’s case, the court also blasted Halligan—a 36-year-old former beauty contestant and insurance lawyer with no prior prosecutorial experience—for a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” that could have resulted in dismissal even if her appointment were valid.
Trump appointed Halligan in September after her predecessor, veteran prosecutor Erik Siebert, was forced out over his refusal to charge James with mortgage fraud, citing a lack of evidence.
By law, interim U.S. attorneys can only serve 120 days without Senate confirmation, unless the federal judiciary agrees to keep them in the position longer. The court ruled that Siebert had already served the interim period, making Halligan’s appointment illegal.
In December, the White House pushed to advance Halligan’s nomination in the Senate, a plan that appeared dead on arrival because neither of Virginia’s Democratic senators was willing to support her nomination with a so-called “blue slip.”
Failure to return a positive blue slip amounts to an internal veto because without it, the Senate Judiciary Committee will not move forward with a hearing or recommendation for a nominee.
Trump has raged against the blue slip process—which has also made it all but impossible for him to appoint his former personal lawyer Alina Habba as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey—but Senate Majority Leader John Thune has refused to kill the practice.
In the meantime, the Department of Justice has brought in new prosecutors to try to secure grand jury indictments against Comey and James, but has so far failed to convince two grand juries to sign off on charges against James.
James successfully sued Trump for civil fraud, while the president blames Comey for helping to trigger special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
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