Several of Donald Trump’s US attorney appointments have come under fire, with the most controversial of these being the appointment of Lindsey Halligan.
Halligan was appointed by Trump after Erik Seibert stepped down due to his lack of desire to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The courts have ruled that Halligan’s appointment was illegal; therefore, she did not have the authority to indict either of them, yet she remained at her post. That is, until Tuesday night, when Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Halligan was stepping down.
The controversy started when Halligan was appointed as Acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Most people are unaware of the fact that there is a clock for appointing acting US attorneys when a president takes office, which is 120 days.
Even though Halligan was replacing someone who stepped down, that clock had expired, and while there are some exceptions, which I will get into in just a minute, the general rule of thumb is that any appointment outside that window is illegal.
Halligan and Bondi ignored that window, with Halligan announcing the indictment of Comey only days before the statute of limitations expired, as well as the indictment of James, both of which were dismissed based on the illegality of the appointment.
In November, Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that the indictments of Comey and James were invalid due to the nature of Halligan’s appointment.
In part, Currie wrote, “The Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid.”
The ruling continued that “all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment,” including the indictments against Comey and James, were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.”
The ruling could be challenged based on 28 U.S.C. § 546 (Interim Appointments) or Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA) (Acting Appointments), but the link here is extremely thin and the effort would more than likely fail.
Earlier this month, US District Judge David Novak questioned why Halligan was still using her title as Acting US Attorney, making it clear the path to having her indictments hold up was not going to be an easy one.
Halligan has finally decided to step down, with Bondi releasing a statement on X explaining the decision, concluding, “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.”
I am going to disagree with Bondi on this, as the rules are quite clear on this, and Halligan’s appointment violated those rules. This is not a rogue judge(s) making a decision simply because it is Trump, as such an appointment by any administration would have been struck down by the courts.
This was either sloppiness or hubris on the part of Bondi and possibly Trump in making the appointment. Of all administrations, Trump has to know he is under a microscope and must do everything by the book. They thumbed their noses at the rule, and they got caught, so now they are trying to save face. We can argue all day about the rule, but until that rule is changed, her appointment would be considered invalid.
