'This may backfire on Trump': Comey retains 'highly regarded' DOJ official as his attorney

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FBI Director James Comey testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, 2017 (Image: Shutterstock)

Lindsey Halligan — who is President Donald Trump's new acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — will be facing a particularly tough opponent on the other side of the courtroom in former FBI Director James Comey's pending criminal trial.

On Thursday, Politico reported that Comey has officially retained former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as his defense attorney, who led the Department of Justice's operations in the Northern District of Illinois for more than a decade. Fitzgerald successfully prosecuted multiple high-profile cases, securing convictions against former Illinois Governors Rod Blagojevich (D) and George Ryan (R), as well as media mogul Conrad Black.

As an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Fitzgerald also prosecuted al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Egyptian terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman and Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Yousef for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. And while Comey was FBI director, he appointed Fitzgerald to oversee the investigation into the Valerie Plame affair during former President George W. Bush's administration.

Halligan's indictment of Comey is just two pages long, and her signature is the only one on the official charging documents (which are typically signed by several career DOJ prosecutors in addition to the U.S. attorney overseeing the case). Halligan has no prior experience as a prosecutor, and practiced insurance law before Trump put her on his legal team in his classified documents case (which Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon later threw out). The grand jury she convened for Comey didn't return an indictment on one of the three charges she recommended.

Several legal experts and commentators argued that Halligan will have an exceedingly difficult road ahead in her goal of convicting Comey on multiple felony counts. Former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance wrote on X that Fitzgerald is "one of the most highly regarded former DOJ officials."

"Interestingly enough, it was James Comey who appointed Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the exposure of the CIA's Valerie Plame," MSNBC columnist Steve Benen wrote on Bluesky. "Fitzgerald then prosecuted Scooter Libby ... who was ultimately pardoned by Trump ... who's now prosecuting Comey ... who'll be represented by Fitzgerald."

Legal journalist Chris Geidner, who writes the "Law Dork" newsletter on Substack, pointed out that Trump's DOJ also has a significant obstacle in the form of U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff — an appointee of former President Joe Biden who served as a federal public defender prior to his nomination to the federal judiciary.

"So it's going to be the tough-as-nails, highly experienced former U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald vs a twice-failed Miss Colorado contestant — who worked in the insurance industry and has never prosecuted anything — in the Comey case? What a time to be alive," author Mollie Katzen wrote.

"This may backfire on Trump," one X user observed.

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