WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday night that Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan is leaving her post as a top federal prosecutor in Virginia.
“Her departure is a significant loss for the Department of Justice and the communities she served,” Bondi said in a statement. “While we will feel her absence keenly, we are confident that she will continue to serve her country in other ways.”
The announcement comes the same day a federal judge barred Halligan from “masquerading” as the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia. At the same time, U.S. District Judge David Novak said he would allow Halligan to avoid attorney disciplinary proceedings for now “in light of her inexperience.”
Novak issued an order that bars “Ms. Halligan from representing herself as the United States Attorney in any pleading or otherwise before this Court until such time as she may lawfully hold the office either by Senate confirmation or appointment by this Court … should either occur.”
Halligan told NBC News in a statement Tuesday evening that she faced “baseless accusations of lying,” as well as accusations of making “false or misleading” statements.
“The court’s remedy did not match its rhetoric. It treated me as though I had been removed from office — declaring my appointment unlawful and striking my name from filings — while never taking the single step Judge Currie identified as the consequence of that conclusion: appointing a replacement U.S. Attorney,” she wrote. “In short, the court took no action to fill the vacancy it said already existed.”
U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie ruled in November that Halligan was unlawfully serving in the role, which the Justice Department has appealed.
Novak had warned that Halligan would face disciplinary referrals if she continued to improperly refer to herself as the U.S. attorney.
“The Court recognizes that Ms. Halligan lacks the prosecutorial experience that has long been the norm for those nominated to the position of United States Attorney in this District,” he wrote. “Consequently, and in light of her inexperience, the Court grants Ms. Halligan the benefit of the doubt and refrains from referring her for further investigation and disciplinary action regarding her misrepresentations to this Court at this time.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia declined to comment.
Novak’s warning also came the day the chief federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia posted a job opening for a top federal prosecutor position previously occupied by Halligan.
Chief Judge M. Hannah Lauck entered an order Tuesday ordering the clerk of the court to post a vacancy announcement, soliciting applications from attorneys interested in filling the position of interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Under the law, when the position is vacant — as the chief judge declared it was — the court can “appoint a United States Attorney to serve until the vacancy is filled” by a Senate-confirmed candidate. The application deadline is listed as Feb. 10.
Currie ruled in November that Halligan was unlawfully serving in the role and dismissed cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. After President Donald Trump urged Bondi to prosecute James and Comey, frequent targets of his ire, Halligan— who had no prosecutorial experience — presented the cases against them to federal grand jurors.
Last month, the Trump administration tried and failed to indict James on mortgage-related charges after the Halligan-led case was dismissed. Then it failed yet again, a remarkable rebuke from federal grand jurors, who typically side with prosecutors who need only show probable cause, a much lower threshold than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard needed to secure a conviction at trial.
Last week, a top attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia was fired in a dispute over whether he would head up an effort to re-indict Comey. Any attempt to re-indict Comey in connection with congressional testimony in September 2020 would face further litigation over whether the prosecution is lawful, given that the five-year statute of limitations has passed.
Halligan was nominated for the position for a second time on Jan. 13, but the Senate has not moved forward with confirming her nomination.
As recently as last week, the Justice Department referred to Halligan as “United States Attorney and Special Attorney” in the Eastern District of Virginia.
“It is the United States’ position that Ms. Halligan was properly appointed as interim United States Attorney — a position the United States has maintained in part based on internal legal advice from the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel,” the Justice Department said after Novak ordered Halligan to explain why she was still serving in the position.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson has said that Bondi “lawfully appointed Lindsey Halligan as the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia” and that the Trump administration “has every confidence in its U.S. attorneys.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche suggested Tuesday afternoon on X that Trump would simply fire any court-appointed U.S. attorney.
Monica Alba and Michael Kosnar contributed.
