A federal judge yesterday ordered the hand-picked Trump prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia to explain in writing why she had continued to lay claim to being the U.S. attorney, even after a different judge found she had been unlawfully appointed to the post. Amazing how little self-respect this cult of personality has. Via the New York Times:
The order by the judge, David J. Novak, in Federal District Court in Richmond, Va., was the most robust effort to date to press the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, on why she has continued to serve in the job, despite a ruling disqualifying her from performing it. Judge Novak gave Ms. Halligan seven days to respond to his demands to tell him why her repeated decisions to sign court papers as the district’s top prosecutor were not “a false or misleading statement” — a move, he suggested, that could lead to disciplinary measures.
Judge Novak’s order came some six weeks after Judge Cameron McGowan Currie found that the Justice Department had violated both the Constitution and laws governing the appointment of U.S. attorneys when it installed Ms. Halligan in the post, after Mr. Trump fired her predecessor.
Judge Currie’s determination that Ms. Halligan had been improperly put in place led her to dismiss a pair of criminal cases that the new prosecutor had filed against two of the president’s most prominent adversaries: James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general.
While the ruling by Judge Currie, who was brought in from a district in South Carolina to consider Ms. Halligan’s appointment, found it was invalid, it did not expressly order her removed from the office. The Justice Department has seized on that to keep Ms. Halligan in place, irritating several judges in her district.
Currie’s decision to disqualify Halligan centered on Trump appointing her in an interim capacity to replace his previous pick, who was also serving in a temporary role. The judge ruled it was unlawful to appoint two interim prosecutors in succession.
Trump fired her predecessor, Erik S. Siebert, because he refused to bring charges against James Comey and Letitia James.
