A federal judge this week ordered Lindsey Halligan, a former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump whom he installed as interim U.S. attorney in Virginia, to explain why she continues to say in court filings that she is still in that role despite another judge’s ruling that her appointment was unconstitutional.
“Ms. Halligan shall further explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement,” U.S. District Judge David Novak, whom Trump nominated to the bench in 2019, wrote in Richmond. The president appointed Halligan as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in September.
Novak’s order on Tuesday, which cites Virginia’s Rules of Professional Conduct, represents the most direct challenge yet to Halligan’s continued presence in the role since a judge in November dismissed a Justice Department indictment against former FBI director James B. Comey on the grounds that her appointment was illegal and that she had no authority as a prosecutor when she presented the case to a grand jury.
The order came in the case of a man indicted last month on charges of carjacking and attempted bank robbery. Government filings in the case, as in other cases, have kept listing Halligan in their signature blocks as “United States Attorney & Special United States Attorney.”
Noting that his order was on his “own initiative,” rather than in response to any motion by litigants in the case, Novak said the ruling in the Comey case that found Halligan’s appointment unconstitutional “remains the binding precedent in this district and is not subject to being ignored.”
The ruling in the Comey case, by U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, found that because Halligan’s predecessor had served the legal limit of 120 days as interim U.S. attorney without Senate confirmation, the administration could not make another interim appointment. The Justice Department has appealed, but Novak said Currie’s order remains in effect in the meantime.
Novak instructed the government to file a response, signed by Halligan, within seven days of his order.
Halligan’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Attorney General Pam Bondi and her chief deputy, Todd Blanche, last month lashed out at federal judges in Virginia, accusing them of waging an “unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility” against Halligan.
“Lindsey and our attorneys are simply doing their jobs: advocating for the Department of Justice’s positions while following guidance from the Office of Legal Counsel,” their statement said. “They do not deserve to have their reputations questioned in court for ethically advocating on behalf of their client.”
Though Novak’s order marks the strongest pushback yet against the continued naming of Halligan as U.S. attorney, it is not the first by judges in Virginia’s Eastern District. Last month, U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff said in court that he found it “difficult to reconcile” Halligan’s continued use of the title with a ruling that “clearly found” her disqualified to assume it.
Nachmanoff’s remark came in a case involving the illegal reentry of a deported Honduran man. The judge found that, though the listing of Halligan as U.S. attorney didn’t substantively affect the case, government lawyers “have a responsibility to submit pleadings that are in conformity with the rules of the court.” He granted a motion from the man’s attorneys to strike Halligan and her title from pleadings in the case.
Another judge similarly struck Halligan’s name from court filings in a case last month against a man accused of drunken driving. In that case, U.S. Magistrate William Fitzpatrick said: “The law in this district right now is that she is not and has not been the United States Attorney.”
Halligan, a former insurance lawyer, served as a personal lawyer for Trump in the case that special counsel Jack Smith brought against him over his alleged mishandling of classified documents, which was ultimately dismissed. She had no prosecutorial experience when Trump installed her in September to go after his political enemies as the Eastern District’s top prosecutor after forcing out his own pick for U.S. attorney there, Erik S. Siebert. Siebert had refused to indict Comey and another of Trump’s targets, New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Halligan promptly secured indictments against Comey and James, but Currie’s ruling tossed them out.
Halligan’s nomination for a full term as U.S. attorney is pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but it is not likely to move forward because it lacks support from Virginia’s two senators — Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats.
The post Federal judge demands Halligan explain why she’s still listed as U.S. attorney appeared first on Washington Post.
