DOJ says Halligan is still a US attorney, despite a judge disqualifying her

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Source: Politico

The Trump administration told a federal judge on Tuesday that attorney Lindsey Halligan remains the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, despite a recent court ruling that disqualified her.

The Justice Department laid out its position in an unusually fiery filing before U.S. District Judge David Novak, who ordered officials earlier this month to explain why Halligan continues to act and to identify herself in court papers as the U.S. attorney for the district.

U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie held in November that Halligan was unlawfully appointed to the post and dismissed cases she had brought against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.

In a response to Novak signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Halligan herself, the Justice Department said Currie’s ruling only applied to the James and Comey cases. Their filing directly questioned both Novak and Currie’s judgment, adding that the courts lack authority to strike the title of “United States Attorney” from Halligan’s name in court filings.

“To answer the Court’s inquisition directly: ‘the basis for Ms. Halligan’s identification of herself as the United States Attorney, notwithstanding Judge Currie’s contrary ruling’ is that, in the Government’s view, Ms. Halligan is the United States Attorney,” the Justice Department wrote. “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.”

Currie’s November ruling held that Halligan’s appointment violated the Constitution’s appointments clause; invalidated all actions flowing from the defective appointment; and held that the power to appoint a top prosecutor to replace Halligan “lies with the district court until” the Senate confirms a nominee.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/13/lindsey-halligan-us-attorney-doj-00726362?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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I have read the filing and Halligan/the DOJ attack and in effect insult the judge. I would not be surprised to see some sanctions

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Disqualified Trump appointee Halligan accuses judge of 'gross abuse of power' for questioning her authority

A federal judge gave Halligan to show why she was still claiming to be a US attorney despite rulings that she was not eligible. The DOJ filed a brief today attacking the judge.

Link to tweet

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/lindsey-halligan-disqualified-trump-attorney-judge-power-abuse-authority/

Lindsey Halligan, the loyalist lawyer President Donald Trump handpicked to prosecute his enemies last year, has accused a federal judge of abusing his power by asking her to explain how she remains the top federal prosecutor in eastern Virginia after a court formally disqualified her more than a month ago.

Halligan’s response to the judge Tuesday — a remarkably defiant document that strains the boundaries of standard legal rhetoric and logic — represents the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) latest pugilistic attempt to keep her at the helm of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, one of the largest and most prestigious federal prosecutor offices in the country.

In November, U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie determined that Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi circumvented the Constitution and federal law in appointing Halligan to lead the office. She then dismissed the DOJ’s criminal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James — two cases that Halligan alone brought just days after her appointment.

Then, last week, U.S. District Judge David Novak ordered Halligan to explain how her continued identification as the top federal prosecutor in eastern Virginia did not amount to making false or misleading statements to a court — and why he shouldn’t strike her identification as a U.S. attorney from a criminal indictment secured after her disqualification.

In response, Halligan characterized Novak’s questions as “a thinly veiled threat” against her authority and claimed the previous unlawful appointment ruling only prevented her from working the dismissed cases against Comey and James.

“This Court appears to be under the misimpression that because Judge Currie’s rationale for dismissing the indictments was her conclusion that Ms. Halligan was unlawfully appointed, the United States must acquiesce to that rationale in all other cases or else it is ‘ignor[ing]’ Judge Currie’s orders,” the response, which was authored by Halligan, states.

“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.”

[NewHendoLib]

2. Laws? Facts? Decency? Fuck all that, maga thinks

[moonshinegnomie]

3. time for the judge to his her hard

1) dismiss every case she signed her name to.
2) have her jailed for impersonating a court officer

[Lovie777]

4. Present DOJ have lost all decency, respect and qualifications...............

they are incompetent bad apples who does not represent the USA nor her people.

[Tadpole Raisin]

5. Defying courts? Just another day ending

in ‘y’ for the DOJ.

The next administration DOJ (if we make it to then) better move very rapidly to get rid of these people, have their licenses revoked and prosecute in the states where they are able to and federally if they must.

No lollygagging!!! And I believe there will be witnesses to these crimes in the administration.

For now maybe judges can dismiss cases brought with Halligan’s name on indictments with prejudice. Fuck ‘em. And refer to the bar for anything and everything!!

[2naSalit]

6. Lock her stupid ass up!

[bluestarone]

7. Nothing like proving the judge was 100% right in

The courts order! Every case she handles will be DROPPED!

[belpejic]

8. Lindsey Halligan

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. 'Gross abuse of power': MAGA prosecutor goes ballistic on judge over disqualification

Halligan is attacking this judge. That is never a good idea

'Gross abuse of power!' MAGA prosecutor goes ballistic on judge over disqualification

— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-01-13T20:41:00Z

https://www.rawstory.com/lindsey-halligan-2674879945

Courtroom drama unfurled on the docket Monday, as disqualified acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan joined up with Justice Department leaders Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche to write a furious brief punching back at U.S. District Judge David Novak, himself an appointee of President Donald Trump.

Halligan was disqualified from office after a court determined that the process the DOJ used to slot her in after the previous U.S. attorney was ousted was illegal — a move that blew up the Trump administration's politically-charged prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Several other Trump prosecutors appointed this way have also been disqualified, including Alina Habba in New Jersey, John Sarcone in New York, and Sigal Chattah in Nevada.

Despite this, Halligan has continued to work in the office and identify herself as a U.S. attorney. This drew the scrutiny of Novak, who ordered Halligan to explain why she is still using a federal title she does not have.

Halligan, Bondi, and Blanche responded with a scathing 11-page brief that accused Novak of not knowing what he's talking about and abusing his office.

"In violation of the Rules of Criminal Procedure and the principle of party presentation, the Court has initiated a sua sponte inquisition into whether it should strike Ms. Halligan’s title from the Government’s signature block," stated the brief. "The order launching this quest reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of Judge Currie’s orders dismissing the indictments in United States v. Comey and United States v. James, and flouts no fewer than three separate lines of Supreme Court precedent on elementary principles like the role of federal courts, the effect of district court rulings, and the nature of our adversarial system.".....

The adversarial language in the brief stunned All Rise News' Adam Klasfeld, who weighed in on the controversy on X.

"In this document, Halligan — fully backed by the top DOJ officials — characterizes Trump-appointed Judge Novak's order as an 'inquisition.' They call it an 'insult,' the judge's mere 'fixation,' 'gross abuse of power,' and a 'cudgel' against the executive branch. They accuse him of making 'rudimentary error,'" wrote Klasfeld.

"To put it mildly, this isn't the type of language one typically sees by a party addressing a judge."

Halligan is hoping that the appellant courts will protect her. This will be fun to watch

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. Halligan defends her use of U.S. attorney title in combative court filing

A court filing by Lindsey Halligan accuses a federal judge of making “rudimentary” legal errors, marking another escalation in the Trump administration’s clash with the judiciary.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/01/13/virgina-united-states-attorney-trump-halligan/

The Justice Department responded defiantly Tuesday to an order from a federal judge directing Lindsey Halligan to explain why she continues to use the title U.S. attorney in Virginia despite another judge’s ruling that her appointment was unconstitutional.

In a response signed by Halligan, the Justice Department opposed U.S. District Judge David Novak, who demanded last week that Halligan account for why she continues to use the U.S. attorney title in court filings. Novak, a Richmond judge who Trump nominated to the bench in 2019, suggested Halligan’s use of the title could amount to false or misleading statements.

“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,” the response said.

The response, which accuses Novak of making “rudimentary” legal errors and missing “elementary” legal principles, is written in a derisive tone unusual for a government lawyer addressing a federal judge.....

Several other judges in the Eastern District have called for Halligan’s name and U.S. attorney title to be struck from court filings.

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, who supervises the Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse, on Friday struck Halligan’s name from a case, commenting that “she should resign from the position at this point.”

In November, U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney was invalid because of an unusual maneuver the Trump administration used to install her. Trump had previously appointed an interim prosecutor to lead the office, Erik S. Siebert, at the start of his term in January 2025. Siebert was forced out in September after declining to seek charges against former FBI director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Career prosecutors had recommended against pursuing the two cases because of insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.

I have read the brief filed by the DOJ and Halligan. I would not be surprised to see some sanctions issued due to Halligan being an utter asshole in this filing

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Gonna be hard to get convictions with the judges granting dismissals

for faulty paperwork.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. Deadline Legal Blog-Ordered to explain herself, Lindsey Halligan invokes Jack Smith

Halligan maintains that she can still call herself a U.S. attorney even though a judge said she was unlawfully appointed.

Link to tweet

https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/lindsey-halligan-us-attorney-jack-smith-unlawfully-appointed

A federal judge ruled in November that Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully installed by the Trump administration as the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia. That led a different judge to order Halligan to explain why she kept calling herself the district’s U.S. attorney in court papers.

Among her defenses: Jack Smith did it, too.

In her response Tuesday, Halligan recalled that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Donald Trump’s classified documents indictment in Florida on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. “Yet in the days and weeks that followed, the Government continued — openly and without objection by any Court — to file documents identifying Jack Smith by his title as Special Counsel while appellate review proceeded,” Halligan wrote.

She added that Smith continued to refer to himself as special counsel in Trump’s separate election interference case in Washington, D.C., and that “as far as the Government is aware, no court — much less any judge — ever threatened Smith with attorney discipline for making purportedly ‘false or misleading statement[s],’ ‘knowingly disobey[ing]’ a court order, or engaging in ‘professional misconduct,’” Halligan wrote, referring to the order that demanded her response, which was issued by U.S. District Judge David Novak, a Trump appointee in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Yet Cannon’s 2024 order dismissing the documents indictment specified that it was “confined to this proceeding” in the Florida case, so it’s unclear how it could’ve led Smith to think he couldn’t refer to himself as special counsel in D.C., where Cannon’s ruling would not apply anyway..

But that general notion wouldn’t make much sense to apply in this situation, where Currie was seemingly brought in to resolve the issue across the board throughout the district. When dealing with the lawfulness of a U.S. attorney’s appointment, a judge will be brought in from outside the district, apparently to avoid a conflict because the judges in a given district have the power to appoint replacement U.S. attorneys when there’s a vacancy. So unless Currie or some other out-of-district judge is going to be brought in to resolve the legality of Halligan’s tenure whenever a new defendant challenges it, it would make sense to consider her ruling as binding throughout the district unless it’s overturned on appeal.

[Prairie Gates]

13. John Roberts, look upon your work!

Dumbass.

[GenThePerservering]

14. You can't fake smart nt

[travelingthrulife]

15. DOJ just flagrantly violating the law from hundreds of different angles

and no one does anything.