Lindsey Halligan Is Officially Out as US Attorney

Lindsey Halligan's brief and contentious run as the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia is over. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Tuesday night that Halligan, appointed on an interim basis by President Trump, is departing the post after just four months, per ABC News. The move came hours after US District Judge David Novak ordered Halligan to stop calling herself the US attorney in court or face possible discipline. Novak said her continued use of the title "ignores a binding court order and may not continue," sharply criticizing both Halligan and the Justice Department for what he described as a defiant response containing "a level of vitriol more appropriate for a cable news talk show."

Halligan had drawn national attention after securing indictments against two Trump antagonists: former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Those cases collapsed in November when another federal judge, Cameron McGowan Currie, ruled that Halligan's appointment violated the Constitution because she had not been confirmed by the Senate or properly appointed by the judiciary. She's now the third Trump-appointed US attorney to exit over allegations of illegality, following Alina Habba in New Jersey and Julianne Murray in Delaware, per the Washington Post.

Novak on Tuesday called it "inconceivable" that the Justice Department would "repeatedly ignore court orders, while simultaneously prosecuting citizens for breaking the law," warning that if DOJ officials could pick and choose which orders to follow, "our system of justice would crumble." "Ms. Halligan and anyone who joins her on a pleading containing the improper moniker subjects themselves to potential disciplinary action in this Court," wrote Novak in ordering her to stop using the US attorney title. A lawyer for James said Halligan's departure "marks another failure in the Trump administration's illegal attempts to install political loyalists as prosecutors," per the Post. Bondi, in a social media post, defended Halligan and blasted the legal rulings that forced her out as "deeply misguided." The US attorney's office in the Eastern District of Virginia has posted an opening to fill the now-vacant position.