Senate Democrats appear likely to deal yet another blow to Lindsey Halligan, President Donald Trump’s embattled pick to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
A federal judge has already ruled that Trump illegally appointed Halligan—a former beauty contestant and insurance lawyer with no prior prosecutorial experience—as interim U.S. attorney and threw out her cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York state Attorney General Letitia James.
Her predecessor, veteran prosecutor Erik Siebert, had been forced out over his refusal to charge James with mortgage fraud, citing a lack of evidence.
On Thursday, the White House pushed to advance Halligan’s nomination in the Senate, but the president’s top choice appears to have hit a wall, Semafor reported.
Virginia’s two Democratic senators are likely to block the nomination by refusing to return a so-called “blue slip,” a process that indicates home-state support for nominees.
Halligan, who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney, “does not have a blue slip” for either Sen. Tim Kaine or Mark Warner, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democratic, Dick Durbin, told Semafor.
Neither Virginia Democrat has explicitly vowed to block Halligan, but the chances of her receiving a blue slip aren’t good. Warner said he would meet with her, but that it would be “very hard” to support her, according to Semafor.
A spokesperson for Warner told the Daily Beast that Halligan had not reached out to try to schedule a meeting. The Daily Beast has contacted Kaine’s office for comment as well.
Failure to return a positive blue slip amounts to an internal veto, because without one, the Senate Judiciary Committee will not move forward with a hearing or recommendation for the nominee.
The White House declined to comment.
On Thursday, Trump raged against the blue slip process in a Truth Social post.
“I am hereby asking Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a fantastic guy, to get something done, ideally the termination of Blue Slips,” Trump wrote. “Too many GREAT REPUBLICANS are being, SENT PACKIN’. None are getting approved!!!”
His tirade came days after another one of his former personal lawyers, Alina Habba, was forced to resign as New Jersey’s top prosecutor after an appeals court found that she was serving unlawfully as interim U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey.
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.
In Habba’s case, a panel of judges voted not to extend her appointment, while in Halligan’s, the court ruled that her appointment was invalid because her predecessor had already served the 120-day interim period.
Speaking to Fox News on Thursday, Thune rejected Trump’s call to scrap the blue slip process and insisted that the Senate had approved his nominees at a “record rate.”
“This is a procedure that’s been in place for a long time, that both Republicans and Democrats support because it gives them some input—particularly in those judicial appointments that are made in their individual states— some input into that decision-making process,” the Senate majority leader said in a rare show of GOP pushback.
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.
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