Unlawfully appointed interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan recently suffered another public embarrassment after a legal reporter noticed an obvious spelling error in her official signature.
On Thursday, NBC News reporter Ryan J. Reilly posted to Bluesky that Halligan had misspelled Virginia as "Virgina" in the block that's used for her signature on legal documents. Halligan's signature block reads: "Lindsey Halligan, United States Attorney Eastern District of Virgina[sic] Florida Bar No. 109481 2100," with her office's address.
Halligan's error was quickly mocked by various legal experts on the platform. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) attorney Kevin H. Bell quipped: "A deep dark secret of both the legal profession and the US government is that virtually everything is copy pasted." Albany Times-Union editor Casey Seilar parlayed the spelling error into a play on the Old Dominion State's official slogan by writing: "Virgina is for lovers."
Legal journalist Chris Geidner, who publishes the "Law Dork" newsletter, responded to Reilly's post with a GIF of the "Roll Safe" meme (which shows a man pointing to his head) and the text: "Can’t keep her from being U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia if she’s the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virgina (or, for that matter, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virgina Florida Bar)."
"The real question is how this wasn’t already a word," wrote Rutgers University law professor Leonore Carpenter.
"Part me me wants to laugh at the fact a Self-Professed US Attorney can’t spell Virginia," wrote college administrator Mike Bowers. "But then I remember that she’s a self-professed US Attorney."
President Donald Trump initially appointed Halligan to her post after firing former U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert for his refusal to indict Trump's political enemies. Halligan brought cases against both former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), though both cases were ultimately dismissed after Halligan was found to have been unlawfully appointed.
