The federal judges in the Eastern District of Virginia unanimously appointed longtime litigator James W. Hundley to serve as interim U.S. attorney on Friday, and the Justice Department almost immediately fired him, continuing a clash over control of one of the country’s highest-profile prosecutor’s offices, which is particularly known for handling significant national security cases.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge M. Hannah Lauck issued an order announcing Hundley’s appointment Friday evening.
Not long after, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted a statement on X. “Here we go again,” Blanche wrote. “EDVA judges do not pick our US Attorney. POTUS does. James Hundley, you’re fired!”
Hundley would have succeeded Lindsey Halligan, a Trump administration lawyer who was named to lead the office last year with a mission to seek criminal charges against President Donald Trump’s perceived political adversaries. She left the post on Jan. 20, weeks after a federal judge ruled that her appointment had been improper. Before her departure, two federal judges issued orders threatening to impose sanctions on government lawyers who cited her as U.S. attorney in court filings.
Since Halligan left the office, it has been overseen by deputies, rather than a U.S. attorney.
Federal law allows judges to appoint a U.S. attorney if no presidential nominee has been confirmed within 120 days and there is no lawfully serving interim pick serving in the role.
But Blanche and other top Justice Department officials have argued for months that the president and the attorney general should be the decision-makers on interim U.S. attorney picks when there is no Senate-confirmed nominee.
Trump administration officials on two other occasions have fired acting U.S. attorneys appointed by the courts — first in New Jersey, then, last week, in Albany, New York. In both cases, federal judges had ruled that interim U.S. attorneys appointed by the Trump administration had been illegally serving in their roles.
Hundley has practiced law in Virginia for more than 35 years.
He worked as an assistant prosecutor in Fairfax County for six years before transitioning to criminal defense law in Northern Virginia. The law firm he co-founded in 1997, Briglia Hundley, is based in Tysons Corner.
Although he has no experience as a federal prosecutor, Hundley has notched several high-profile legal victories. In 2000, he successfully argued to the Supreme Court that the practice of administering Miranda warnings upon arrest is required by the Constitution and cannot be repealed by legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) said Hundley has been known as a “competent, even-keeled criminal defense lawyer” in Northern Virginia circles for decades.”
“If he has politics, I don’t know what they are,” Surovell said.
Hundley graduated from Georgetown University Law Center, clerked for a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia and worked for six years as a prosecutor in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office for Fairfax County, according to Lauck’s order.
It’s unclear what will happen next.
Federal judges in New Jersey and New York showed little public resistance after lawyers they had sought to install as U.S. attorneys were swiftly fired by Trump administration officials.
In Virginia, the federal judge who was assigned to hear a dispute about the proper method of appointing interim U.S. attorneys, Cameron McGowan Currie, ruled in November that Halligan was illegally appointed. The Trump administration had already made one interim appointment that lasted 120 days, that of Erik S. Siebert at the start of 2025.
After that, the power to appoint an interim U.S. attorney shifted to the Eastern District of Virginia’s judges “until a U.S. Attorney is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate,” according to Currie’s ruling.
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