Judge Asks Halligan to Explain Continued Use of US Attorney Title

A federal court ruling last November said Lindsey Halligan had been illegally appointed to the position in Virginia.

Lindsey Halligan, then-special assistant to the president, speaks with a reporter outside the White House on Aug. 20, 2025. Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

A federal judge in Virginia has given Lindsey Halligan seven days to explain why she continues to call herself a U.S. attorney after a court ruled last year that she didn’t legally hold that position.

U.S. District Judge David J. Novak issued the Jan. 7 order on his own initiative after Halligan used the title when signing an indictment in his court. He noted that U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie had ruled last November that Halligan’s appointment violated federal law.

“She shall set forth the reasons why this Court should not strike Ms. Halligan’s identification of herself as United States Attorney from the indictment in this matter,” the order reads.

“Ms. Halligan shall further explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement.”

Halligan, who was named interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, brought indictments against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey last September.

Those cases were dismissed on the grounds that she had been illegally appointed. Judge Currie wrote that an interim U.S. Attorney could only hold the position for 120 days without Senate confirmation.

After that time, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia—not Attorney General Pam Bondi—had the authority to appoint a replacement, Currie ruled.

Halligan’s predecessor, Erik Siebert, held the interim position from January to September of 2024, when he resigned after refusing to bring charges against Comey and James.

“In light of these principles, I conclude that all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment,” including the indictments against Comey and James, “constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside,” the ruling says.

The Department of Justice has appealed that ruling, Judge Novak’s order acknowledged, but since the appeals court has not overturned Currie’s ruling, the decision stands.

Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called the ruling part of “an unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility” toward Halligan, in a statement posted on X.

The Trump administration has since tried to secure Senate confirmation for Halligan, but those efforts have been stalled because of the “blue slip” tradition, which allows senators to hold up nominees appointed to their home state. Virginia has two Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.

President Donald Trump has sought to abolish the custom, but has met with pushback from members of his own party.

“I have a Constitutional Right to appoint Judges and U.S. Attorneys, but that RIGHT has been completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator,” he said in a Truth Social post last August.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) countered that the 100-year-old tradition had allowed GOP senators to block 30 of former President Joe Biden’s nominees.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.