Judge rips Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan for her ‘cable news talk show’ defense of US attorney title
A federal judge ripped into Lindsey Halligan and top officials at the Department of Justice for their vitriolic defense of her continued use of the “U.S. Attorney” title, despite a court ruling that found she is unlawfully serving in the role.
Last week’s filing “contains a level of vitriol more appropriate for a cable news talk show and falls far beneath the level of advocacy expected from litigants in this Court, particularly the Department of Justice,” according to Tuesday’s order from Virginia District Judge David Novak.
The judge ruled that her claim to the title of U.S Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia “ignores a binding court order” and could result in disciplinary action.
She has “no legal basis” to continue the “charade,” the judge wrote.
“And any such representation going forward can only be described as a false statement made in direct defiance of valid court orders,” according to the judge. “This charade of Ms. Halligan masquerading as the United States Attorney for this District in direct defiance of binding court orders must come to an end.”
Novak had previously asked the Justice Department to explain why she is still representing herself as the top federal prosecutor in the district despite November’s order from District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie.
A hostile response accused the judge of making “rudimentary” legal errors and flouting “elementary” legal principles in a “gross abuse of power” for daring to suggest that Halligan could be misleading the courts.
The document was signed by Halligan and submitted by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, among others.
Trump nominated his one-time personal lawyer as interim U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia after the president boasted of “firing” her predecessor, who had resisted pressure from the administration to prosecute former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
But Halligan brought indictments against them days after taking office. A federal judge dismissed both cases and determined that Halligan was serving unlawfully in the role.
Because Halligan remained in office past the 120-period for interim U.S. attorney, “all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment,” including the cases against Comey and James, “were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside,” according to Currie’s order.
Novak demanded to know “the basis” for her title and to “further explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement.”
But according to the Justice Department, “Ms. Halligan is the United States Attorney, and Judge Currie’s ruling did not and could not require the United States to acquiesce to her contrary (and erroneous) legal reasoning outside of those cases.”
“The bottom line is that Ms. Halligan has not ‘misrepresented’ anything and the Court is flat wrong to suggest that any change to the Government’s signature block is warranted in this or any other case,” officials wrote last week.
