Lindsey Halligan, the former interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is facing an investigation by the Florida Bar for her role in pursuing criminal charges against two of President Donald Trump’s most prominent political foes, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
The state bar acknowledged the inquiry in a letter last month to the nonprofit Campaign for Accountability, which had called for disciplinary proceedings against Halligan over her conduct in the prosecutions of former FBI director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Halligan resigned in January under increasing pressure from federal judges in her district after a court ruled that she had been unlawfully appointed to her position, and dismissed the cases against Comey and James.
The nonprofit group has filed complaints against Halligan with the bar associations in Virginia and in Florida, where she worked as an insurance lawyer before joining the Trump administration at the start of his second term.
“We already have an investigation pending,” the Florida Bar said in its letter responding to the nonprofit’s complaint, which was also sent to Halligan, according to a copy reviewed by The Post.
Halligan did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday about the Florida disciplinary investigation. A spokesperson for the Florida Bar acknowledged the open case but declined to comment on its progress.
If Florida’s bar investigators conclude that Halligan acted improperly in handling the Comey and James cases, it could lead to her disbarment in the state.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department proposed a change to federal regulations that it said would allow federal officials to intervene in state bar disciplinary proceedings targeting department attorneys.
It remains unclear what authority the department has to involve itself in those matters. But the proposal, posted to the Federal Register, said changes were necessary because “political activists have weaponized the bar complaint and investigation process” in recent years to target senior department officials.
Under the proposed regulation, the Justice Department would request that state bar associations suspend all disciplinary inquiries against department attorneys until the Justice Department could complete its own review.
The Florida inquiry, which was first reported Thursday by the New York Times, is centered on Halligan’s efforts to charge Comey, on charges of lying to Congress, and James, on counts of mortgage fraud, after Trump publicly demanded the Justice Department move swiftly to prosecute them both.
Despite having no previous experience as a prosecutor, Halligan put both cases before a grand jury, over objections from career lawyers in her office, and managed to secure indictments.
But last fall, a federal magistrate judge overseeing aspects of Comey’s case said that it appeared Halligan had made “fundamental misstatements of the law” during her presentation to the grand jury — ones so severe that they could compromise the future of the case.
Those concerns were never fully explored in court, however, because a different federal judge threw out the Comey and James cases, citing issues with the validity of Halligan’s appointment to her role.
Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of Campaign for Accountability, said her organization decided to release the correspondence revealing the Florida Bar investigation after the Justice Department posted its proposal on bar disciplinary proceedings this week.
“While I do not have conclusive evidence that those two are connected, one can certainly speculate that the timing is interesting,” she said. “I think it’s fair to ask, why is DOJ promulgating this rule?”
She said her organization has filed a handful of complaints against Justice Department attorneys to bar associations across the country, including in Maryland, New York and New Jersey.
“I don’t know what DOJ’s intention is,” Kuppersmith said, adding that perhaps “they see a threat, and they may be responding to it.”
Kuppersmith said she is not aware of any instances in which the Justice Department has tried to intervene in ongoing bar association investigations.
“We just hope that the bars do their jobs and execute investigations to their fullest ability,” Kuppersmith said. “There are standards for lawyers that we think should be met.”
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