Former special assistant to the president Lindsey Halligan (Photo: Screen capture)
U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was triggered by the judge during the trial over whether James Comey is being selectively prosecuted by the Justice Department as part of President Donald Trump's revenge campaign.
Lawfare's Roger Parloff pointed out that Halligan attacked Judge Michael Nachmanoff after a perceived slight.
In an exclusive with the New York Post, Halligan ranted, “Personal attacks — like Judge Nachmanoff referring to me as a ‘puppet’ — don’t change the facts or the law."
Chad Gilmartin, the Justice Department's public affairs staffer, promoted her comments on social media.
But as Parloff pointed out, the judge never directly called Halligan a puppet.
"He asked the defense if its legal position was that Halligan had been acting as a stalking horse or puppet--doing a vindictive president's bidding. (Which she almost certainly was)," Parloff posted.
The issue before the court on Wednesday was whether the prosecution was selective or vindictive based on Trump's long-time animus with Comey, whom he fired from the post in 2017. Comey said at the time that he was asked to pledge his loyalty to Trump and said that his only loyalty is to the law, as such officials must swear an oath to the Constitution of the United States, CNN reported at the time.