Lindsey Halligan leaving US attorney's office, Bondi says
Lindsey Halligan, President Donald Trump's appointee as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is leaving her post after four months, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Tuesday night.
In a social media post, Bondi defended Halligan, a former White House aide who, as U.S. attorney, secured indictments against two of Trump's highest-profile political opponents before a federal judge ruled she had been unlawfully appointed.
"While we will feel her absence keenly, we are confident that she will continue to serve her country in other ways," Bondi said. "The circumstances that led to this outcome are deeply misguided. We are living in a time when a democratically elected President's ability to staff key law enforcement positions faces serious obstacles. The Department of Justice will continue to seek review of decisions like this that hinder our ability to keep the American people safe."
Earlier Tuesday, a federal judge on Tuesday ordered that Halligan must stop using the interim U.S. attorney title before the court or face disciplinary action.
"Ms. Halligan's continued identification of herself as the United States Attorney for this District ignores a binding court order and may not continue," the order from U.S. District Judge David Novak stated.
Judge Novak earlier this month ordered Halligan to explain to the court why she was using the U.S. attorney title after the judge in that district found that her appointment was improper and violated the Constitution.
The Justice Department's fiery reply to that order, which included Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as signatories, drew Judge Novak's ire.
"Ms. Halligan's response, in which she was joined by both the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General, contains a level of vitriol more appropriate for a cable news talk show and falls far beneath the level of advocacy expected from litigants in this Court, particularly the Department of Justice," Novak wrote Tuesday.
Halligan, who was appointed interim U.S. attorney by Trump in September, secured indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, only to have them thrown out when U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie determined in November that she had been unlawfully appointed without being either Senate confirmed or appointed by the federal judiciary.
"The Court finds it inconceivable that the Department of Justice, which holds a duty to faithfully execute the laws of the United States even those with which it may have disagreement would repeatedly ignore court orders, while simultaneously prosecuting citizens for breaking the law," Judge Novak wrote in Tuesday's order. "If the Court were to allow Ms. Halligan and the Department of Justice to pick and choose which orders that they will follow, the same would have to be true for other litigants and our system of justice would crumble."
The judge warned that if Halligan continued to use the U.S. attorney title, she would be subject to disciplinary proceedings.
"Ms. Halligan and anyone who joins her on a pleading containing the improper moniker subjects themselves to potential disciplinary action in this Court pursuant to the Court's Local Rules," Tuesday's order said.
The Eastern District of Virginia also issued a job posting to fill the vacancy left by Halligan's improper appointment.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia declined to comment when contacted by ABC News earlier Tuesday.
