Judge orders Lindsey Halligan to explain why she keeps using U.S. attorney title following court decision

Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Lindsey Halligan to explain why she continues to identify herself as a U.S. attorney despite a different judge finding her appointment as the top federal prosecutor in eastern Virginia was invalid.

U.S. District Judge David Novak, who sits in Richmond, gave Halligan seven days to provide the basis for her use of the title and ordered her to explain why her identification as U.S. attorney "does not constitute a false or misleading statement."

Novak also instructed Halligan to lay out the reasons why the court "should not strike Ms. Halligan's identification as United States attorney" from an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in early December. Halligan's name is listed on the indictment and her title as "United States attorney and special attorney."

U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie ruled in November that Halligan's appointment as interim U.S. attorney violated the Constitution's Appointments Clause and a federal law governing U.S. attorney vacancies. Because of the finding, Currie ordered criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James to be dismissed. The Justice Department appealed the decision, but it has not asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to freeze Currie's ruling while it considers the appeal.

As a result, Novak said the decision "remains binding precedent in this district and is not subject to being ignored."

Shortly after Currie's ruling, prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia received orders to keep Halligan's title of U.S. attorney on all pleadings, claiming that the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel had approved it, according to an email reviewed by CBS News.

In the email, prosecutors were told to list her as both United States Attorney and Special United States Attorney, with the word "Attorney" misspelled in the first title. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an order in October that purported to retroactively appoint Halligan as special attorney, effective Sept. 22.

Halligan is a former insurance lawyer who was a member of President Trump's legal team in a civil case arising from former special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into his handling of sensitive government documents after leaving the White House in January 2021. She then joined Mr. Trump at the White House after he won a second term in November 2024.

Halligan was tapped to serve as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in September after Erik Siebert, who was the top prosecutor for the region, abruptly left the post amid concerns he would be forced out for failing to prosecute James.

Days after she was appointed, Halligan sought and secured a two-count indictment against Comey alleging he lied to Congress during testimony in September 2020. James, the New York attorney general, was indicted on bank fraud charges in early October. Both pleaded not guilty and sought to have their respective indictments dismissed on numerous grounds, including the validity of Halligan's appointment.

The statute invoked by the Trump administration to appoint Halligan allows an interim U.S. attorney to serve for 120 days. Their tenure can then be extended by the U.S. district court judges for the region. 

But Currie found that Halligan's appointment was not consistent with that framework because the 120-day clock started running when Siebert was appointed in January. When that timeframe expired, Attorney General Pam Bondi's authority to appoint an interim U.S. attorney did too, the judge found.

Currie found that Halligan had been serving unlawfully since Sept. 22 and concluded that "all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan's defective appointment" had to be set aside.

Sarah N. Lynch contributed reporting.