Halligan Out as VA District Prosecutor 01/21 06:25

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lindsey Halligan, who, as a hastily appointed Justice 
Department prosecutor, pursued indictments against a pair of President Donald 
Trump's adversaries, is leaving her position as her months-long tenure has now 
concluded, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday night.

   Halligan's departure from the role of interim United States attorney for the 
Eastern District of Virginia came as multiple judges were casting doubt on her 
ability to remain in the job legally following a court ruling two months ago 
that declared her appointment illegal. She was appointed in September to a 
120-day stint, which concluded Tuesday.

   "The circumstances that led to this outcome are deeply misguided," Bondi 
said in a social media post on X announcing Halligan's exit. "We are living in 
a time when a democratically elected President's ability to staff key law 
enforcement positions faces serious obstacles. The Department of Justice will 
continue to seek review of decisions like this that hinder our ability to keep 
the American people safe."

   The move brings an end to a brief but tumultuous tenure. Trump tapped 
Halligan, a White House aide who had served as his personal lawyer but had no 
prior experience as a federal prosecutor, to lead one of the Justice 
Department's most important and prestigious offices. She quickly succeeded in 
securing indictments at Trump's urging against former FBI Director James Comey 
and New York Attorney General Letitia James. But a judge later concluded that 
her appointment was unlawful and that the two indictments must therefore be 
dismissed.

   The Trump administration had kept Halligan in place despite that ruling, but 
on Tuesday, two judges made clear that they believed it was time for her tenure 
to end. Hours later, Halligan became the latest Trump ally to give up her title 
amid scrutiny from judges about the administration's maneuvering to install the 
president's loyalists in key posts. Last month, for instance, another of 
Trump's former personal attorneys, Alina Habba, resigned after an appeals court 
said she, too, had been serving in her position unlawfully.

   It was not immediately clear who would now lead the U.S. attorney's office 
in the Eastern District of Virginia, which has been buffeted by resignations 
and leadership turnover since last September when the Trump administration 
effectively forced out the veteran prosecutor who had been leading the office, 
Erik Siebert, and replaced him with Halligan.

   Halligan's departure followed orders Tuesday from separate judges that 
marked a dramatic new front in an ongoing clash between the Trump 
administration and the federal court over the legitimacy of her appointment.

   In one order, M. Hannah Lauck, the chief judge of the Eastern District of 
Virginia and a nominee of President Barack Obama, directed a clerk to publish a 
vacancy announcement on the court's website and said she was "soliciting 
expressions of interest in serving in that position."

   In a separate order, U.S. District Judge David Novak said he was striking 
the words "United States Attorney" from the signature block of an indictment in 
a case that was before him as well as barring Halligan from continuing to 
present herself with that title. He said he would initiate disciplinary 
proceedings against Halligan if she violated his order and persisted in 
identifying herself in court filings as a U.S. attorney, and said other 
signatories could be subject to discipline as well.

   "No matter all of her machinations, Ms. Halligan has no legal basis to 
represent to this Court that she holds the position. And any such 
representation going forward can only be described as a false statement made in 
direct defiance of valid court orders," Novak wrote. "In short, 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, who was appointed to the bench by Trump during the Republican 
president's first term in office, chided Justice Department leadership for what 
he suggested was an improperly antagonistic defense of Halligan by Bondi and 
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in an earlier court filing.

   "Ms. Halligan's response, in which she was joined by both the Attorney 
General and the Deputy Attorney General, 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," Novak wrote.

   "The Court will not engage in a similar tit-for-tat and will instead analyze 
the few points that Ms. Halligan offers to justify her continued identification 
of her position as United States Attorney before the Court," he added.

   Halligan was thrust into the position amid pressure by Trump to charge Comey 
and James, two of his longtime perceived adversaries. Trump made his desire for 
indictments clear in a Truth Social post in which he implored Bondi to act 
swiftly.

   Halligan secured the indictments, but the win was short-lived. In November, 
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Halligan had been 
illegally appointed and dismissed both cases. The Justice Department has 
appealed that ruling.

   In her own statement, Halligan acknowledged that her 120-day tenure had come 
to an end on Tuesday. She also lamented the legal limbo she said she had been 
left in by Currie's opinion, noting that judges in the district over the last 
two months had "repeatedly treated my appointment as disqualifying" without 
actually removing her from the role.

   "The court's remedy did not match its rhetoric. It treated me as though I 
had been removed from office -- declaring my appointment unlawful and striking 
my name from filings -- while never taking the single step Judge Currie 
identified as the consequence of that conclusion: appointing a replacement U.S. 
attorney," she said.