Trump-appointed judge tears into Lindsey Halligan’s ‘vitriol’ and calls her leadership a ‘charade’

By Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge on Tuesday ripped into Lindsey Halligan, President Donald Trump’s personal choice as the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, after she used unusually sharp language to push back on the judge’s questioning of her authority, saying the “unnecessary rhetoric” had “a level of vitriol more appropriate for a cable news talk show.”

The assessment from US District Judge David Novak, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, is the latest dramatic development in a months-long legal saga surrounding Halligan, whose tenure was cut short after a judge determined in November that she was unlawfully serving in the role.

That decision, which effectively killed criminal cases Halligan brought at the president’s urging against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James, should have also meant that Halligan no longer represented herself as the US attorney leading the office, according to judges in the district. But she continued to use the title on court documents, drawing the ire of Novak and other judges who thought she was openly flouting the ruling.

“Ms. Halligan has continued to identify herself as the United States Attorney for this District in pleadings, including on the indictment and other pleadings in this case,” Novak wrote in an 18-page ruling in a criminal case brought by Halligan’s office. “I elected to give Ms. Halligan an opportunity to explain her position … After reviewing Ms. Halligan’s filing and piercing through the unnecessary rhetoric, I find her position to be unavailing.”

“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,” the judge wrote. “The Court will not engage in a similar tit-for-tat.”

Novak said Halligan cannot continue to ignore the ruling issued last year by US District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, which found that her appointment was invalid, and warned that Halligan “and anyone who joins her on a pleading containing the improper moniker” could be subjected to potential disciplinary action.

But he spared Halligan from facing such consequences for now. He pointed out she had no prosecutorial experience when she took the helm of the US Attorney’s office in September and said he was giving her the benefit of the doubt.

“In light of her inexperience, the court grants Ms. Halligan the benefit of the doubt and refrains from referring her for further investigation and disciplinary action regarding her misrepresentations to this Court at this time,” Novak wrote.

Help wanted: Judges advertise for a replacement to Halligan

Novak’s ruling landed shortly after EDVA’s chief judge began publicly seeking applicants to serve on an interim basis as the US attorney for the district.

In a brief order that made no mention of the decision issued last year by Currie, which has been appealed, Chief Judge M. Hannah Lauck pointed to the fact that when Halligan was first appointed in September to serve as interim US attorney her stint was supposed to last 120 days – which is Tuesday.

Currie, who ordinarily presides over cases in South Carolina, was tapped to handle the Halligan authority dispute given the role the other judges in EDVA play in ensuring there is a top prosecutor in their district.

Trump has officially nominated Halligan to serve permanently in the role, but the Senate has not confirmed her. Under federal law, when a US attorney position is vacant, judges in a district have the power to appoint an individual to serve in the role on an interim basis until the Senate confirms someone to it.

“The court is soliciting expressions of interest in serving in that position,” Lauck wrote in the two-page order. She directed the court’s clerk to publish the vacancy announcement in several area newspapers and blast it out to all attorneys who practice in the district.

Lauck said the court would accept applications through February 10.

This is not the first time judges in EDVA have stepped in to ensure the US Attorney’s Office in their district has a leader.

Last May, they voted unanimously to keep Erik Siebert, whose 120-day stint as interim US attorney was coming to a close, in the job. He continued serving in the position until September, when he left the office amid pressure from the president and others to pursue criminal charges against James, a longtime Trump foe.

Halligan then took the reins of the office in Alexandria, Virginia, and moved quickly to single-handedly bring the cases against Comey and James, which fell apart when the judge determined she was serving in the position unlawfully.

But in the aftermath of that ruling, Halligan continued representing herself on filings in criminal cases as EDVA’s interim US attorney, drawing pushback from judges in Virginia.

“The law in this district right now is that she is not and has not been the United States Attorney,” one of those judges, Magistrate William Fitzpatrick, said last month.

Making the same point Tuesday, Novak used more stinging language.

“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,” he wrote.

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