Who’s Lindsey Halligan, prosecutor in Comey, James circumstances? : NPR

A federal choose dismissed the Justice Division’s circumstances towards former FBI Director James Comey and New York Legal professional Common Letitia James,discovering that the prosecutor overseeing them was unlawfully appointed to her function.

That prosecutor is Lindsey Halligan, a 36-year-old former insurance coverage lawyer who served as certainly one of President Trump’s private legal professionals after his first time period and joined his second administration as a White Home aide.

Trump appointed Halligan as appearing U.S. lawyer for the Jap District of Virginia in late September, the day after her predecessor, Erik Siebert, resigned beneath stress from the president to carry prices towards Comey and James.

In his announcement, Trump referred to as Halligan a “powerful, good and dependable lawyer” who “has the power and willpower to be completely OUTSTANDING on this new and essential function.”

However Halligan’s tenure has been mired in controversy, reaching new highs on Monday when U.S. District Choose Cameron McGowan Currie dominated in twin opinions that Halligan’s appointment was illegal.

The choose discovered that Halligan’s appointment violated a federal statute that limits interim U.S. attorneys to 120 days within the function, as a result of Siebert had been in that appearing function since January. After 120 days and not using a Senate affirmation, solely district courts — not the Legal professional Common — can fill a emptiness.

Currie wrote that Halligan, whom she describes as “a former White Home aide with no prior prosecutorial expertise,” had “no lawful authority to current the indictment” towards Comey or James. As a result of Halligan’s was the one signature on these paperwork, they’re rendered invalid.

“All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s faulty appointment, together with securing and signing Mr. Comey’s indictment, have been illegal workouts of government energy and are hereby put aside,” Currie wrote.

The ruling leaves the door open for the Justice Division to attraction, which White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned it can. In an interview Monday on Fox Information, she downplayed the choice as a “technical ruling” and defended Halligan’s authority.

“We imagine that the lawyer on this case, Lindsey Halligan, just isn’t solely extraordinarily certified for this place however she was in actual fact legally appointed,” Leavitt mentioned.

This is what to know in regards to the prosecutor on the heart of this newest political storm.

Halligan acquired her begin in insurance coverage regulation 

Halligan grew up in Broomfield, Colo., a suburb about midway between Denver and Boulder. She performed softball and basketball and competed in a number of Miss Colorado USA pageants, incomes third runner-up in 2009.

She studied politics and broadcast journalism at Regis College, the Jesuit faculty in Denver that Erika Kirk additionally attended. In response to one skilled biography, Halligan developed an curiosity in regulation whereas interning on the Denver Metropolis Legal professional’s Workplace in school.

She acquired her regulation diploma from the College of Miami in 2013, interning on the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Workplace and the regulation faculty’s Miami Innocence Clinic alongside the way in which. She started her authorized profession on the Florida agency Cole, Scott & Kissane, which focuses on insurance coverage protection litigation.

Halligan grew to become a associate on the agency in 2018 and, the next yr, gained reward for defeating a $500,000 property harm declare involving a leaky roof (“George and Lindsey introduced proof that the roof was outdated and simply previous its regular life expectancy,” the agency mentioned in a information launch on the time).

Halligan advised the Washington Publish earlier this yr that she first met Trump at a November 2021 occasion at his golf membership in West Palm Seashore — months after his first time period ended, as he was beneath investigation by each the Justice Division and New York State.

“I noticed the identical factor that I noticed once I interned on the Innocence clinic: somebody who was getting railroaded by the system,” Halligan advised the newspaper.

Halligan went from private lawyer to the president’s assistant

Halligan joined Trump’s private authorized group in 2022.

“As a Associate on the largest Regulation Agency in Florida, Lindsey proved herself to be an incredible trial lawyer, and later represented me (and WON!) within the disgraceful Democrat Paperwork Hoax, in addition to MANY different main, excessive profile circumstances,” Trump wrote on Fact Social in September.

Halligan and Trump have each mentioned that she was at his Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022 when the FBI raided the property as a part of its investigation into his retention of categorised paperwork. She helped defend him in that case, each in court docket and on TV.

A Trump-appointed federal choose finally dismissed it in July 2024, ruling the prosecutor had been unlawfully appointed, and the Justice Division dropped its attraction after Trump was reelected.

When Trump returned to the White Home in January 2025, Halligan joined his administration with two titles: White Home senior affiliate workers secretary and particular assistant to the president.

Halligan remained seen, incessantly showing with him within the Oval Workplace and on the U.S. Open.

One among her most seen White Home contributions was main its controversial assessment of greater than half a dozen Smithsonian Establishment museums to “guarantee alignment” with Trump’s cultural directives. The Group of American Historians has referred to as the order, which was issued in August, an “unacceptable occasion of ongoing government overreach.”

Halligan has defended and brought credit score for it, telling The Washington Publish that when she moved to D.C. forward of Trump’s inauguration, a few of the museum displays she visited struck her as “weaponizing historical past.”

“And so I talked to the president about it,” Halligan mentioned, “and advised an government order, and he gave me his blessing, and right here we’re.”

Halligan is accused of missteps within the dropped circumstances

Whereas the Comey and James circumstances have been thrown out due to Halligan’s lack of authority, their legal professionals — in addition to outdoors authorized specialists — accused Halligan of authorized missteps in her effort to prosecute Trump’s political enemies.

Halligan’s predecessor, Siebert, had resisted bringing prices towards each officers due to inadequate proof. On the time, his workplace had already opened an investigation into James over financial institution fraud allegations associated to a 2020 mortgage software for a Virginia property. Siebert’s resignation got here hours after Trump advised reporters that he needed the prosecutor “out.”

Trump introduced Halligan’s appointment the next day. That is additionally the day Trump posted — and later deleted — a message on social media showing to stress Legal professional Common Pam Bondi to analyze his political rivals: Comey, James and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California.

Bondi’s workplace issued an order authorizing Halligan for the interim U.S. lawyer job lower than 48 hours later, on Sept. 22. Halligan’s workplace introduced on Sept. 25 {that a} federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Comey with making a false assertion and obstruction over 2020 Senate testimony.

That announcement got here 5 days earlier than the statute of limitations would have expired in Comey’s case — and on Halligan’s fourth day on the job.

“She began on a Monday — this was a Thursday — and tried to get this indictment in a case,” former federal prosecutor Elie Honig advised NPR’s Morning Version. “I’ll inform you, if I went right into a grand jury on my fourth day on the job and tried to indict a sophisticated, high-stakes case like this too, I am certain I’d’ve screwed up as properly.”

Within the weeks since, the grand jury course of has been the topic of rising authorized questions. Earlier this month, a Justice of the Peace choose took the bizarre step of ordering the Justice Division to show over all grand jury supplies to Comey’s protection group, citing a “disturbing sample of profound investigative missteps.”

Scrutiny additional elevated after a listening to final week, at which Halligan confirmed that the total grand jury by no means reviewed the ultimate indictment towards Comey — a stunning revelation that may very well be sufficient to get the case dismissed, although a prosecutor on the listening to downplayed it as a “paperwork error.”

Halligan initially sought three counts towards Comey, however the grand jury rejected certainly one of them. Then Halligan or another person created a brand new indictment with renumbered prices however did not carry that again to the grand jury for a vote, a step that Honig mentioned “any semi-experienced prosecutor” would know to not skip.

“It might take 10 minutes,” he added. “As a substitute, she simply brings it to the choose with two grand jurors together with her, which isn’t sufficient. And now she’s created this downside for herself out of a sheer lack of competence.”

Days later, a choose threw the case out for a completely totally different cause.