Donald Trump’s beauty queen prosecutor is facing a fresh crisis after a judge demanded she explain why she was still calling herself U.S. Attorney despite a federal court ruling that her appointment was illegal.
More than six weeks after a judge threw out Lindsey Halligan’s indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York state Attorney General Letitia James on the grounds that she was illegally serving as interim U.S. Attorney, Halligan is still signing indictments as the Eastern District of Virginia’s lead prosecutor, according to a bombshell court filing.
Federal Judge David Novak, who was appointed by Trump, issued an order Tuesday demanding that Halligan “explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement.”
Novak wrote that although the government had appealed the ruling that nullified Halligan’s appointment, the appeals court had not issued a stay in the case, meaning the original decision remained “binding precedent in this district” while the appeals process played out.
The Richmond-area judge also noted that he had issued the order of his own initiative, as opposed to at the request of a defense counsel, and gave Halligan seven days to respond.
The 36-year-old former beauty contestant and insurance lawyer—who also worked as a civil attorney for Trump—is still calling herself the U.S. Attorney on the Eastern District of Virginia’s website and on X.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
Halligan was sworn in as interim U.S. Attorney on Sept. 23 after her predecessor was pushed out over his refusal to bring cases against Trump’s perceived enemies, citing lack of evidence.
She quickly secured indictments against Comey and James, but those cases were called into question over the validity of her appointment.
In early November, Attorney General Pam Bondi tried to shore up the indictments by giving Halligan the additional title of “special attorney,” which the administration claimed applied retroactively to Sept. 22.
The court, however, rejected that argument and dismissed the cases in a Nov. 24 ruling that found Halligan was illegally serving as U.S. Attorney.
Bondi’s DOJ, however, has continued to insist that Halligan is the office’s lead attorney. Last month, several judges in the district complained to prosecutors in open court about Halligan signing new criminal case filings.
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. The court ruled that veteran prosecutor Erik Siebert had already served the interim period, making Halligan’s appointment illegal.
Even before her appointment was overturned, the court blasted Halligan for a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” that could have resulted in dismissal.
In December, the White House pushed to advance Halligan’s nomination in the Senate, a plan that appeared dead on arrival because neither of Virginia’s Democratic senators was willing to support her nomination with a so-called “blue slip.”
Failure to return a positive blue slip amounts to an internal veto because without it, the Senate Judiciary Committee will not move forward with a hearing or recommendation for a nominee.
Trump has raged against the blue slip process—which has also made it all but impossible for him to appoint his former personal lawyer Alina Habba as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey—but Senate Majority Leader John Thune has refused to kill the practice.
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.
James successfully sued Trump for civil fraud, while the president blames Comey for helping to trigger special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
