On Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) submitted a filing in the cases of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James defending the appointment of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan. But multiple attorneys, professors and journalists are blasting the DOJ in what they view as a last-ditch attempt to keep Halligan in her role.
Reuters reporter Brad Heath posted to Bluesky on Monday that Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed to have "retroactively appointed former Trump attorney Lindsey Halligan as a 'special attorney' for DOJ and has 'ratified' all of her actions to date, including her presentations to the grand juries that indicted Trump's foes." Legal journalist Chris Geidner posted the DOJ filing and the appointment while quipping that Bondi "dressed up as a lawyer on Halloween."
"Evidently, time travel is now one of the Trump administration's powers," Columbia University history professor Karl Jacoby wrote.
In a post to his X account, American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick tweeted that while he is not a lawyer and doesn't know the intricacies of the judicial system, he still had "no clue how Pam Bondi can legally go back in time and appoint Halligan to a position as of six weeks ago."
Harper's Magazine contributing editor Scott Horton wrote: "Realizing that the appointment of Lindsey Halligan is fatally flawed, Pam Bondi engages in some quick steps to try to salvage things. Will it work? It shouldn't, actually."
Questions over the legality of Halligan's appointment have continued to linger since she was installed to replace former interim U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert — who was forced out of the role after declining to bring charges against Comey and James. Conservative attorney George Conway argued last month that Halligan's appointment was not lawful according to the federal statute that governs U.S. attorney vacancies, and that her indictments of Comey and James should be thrown out.
"We really need to talk about 'ratification,'" wrote lawyer Cathy Gellis on Bluesky. This administration keeps thinking it can take garbage decisions made with no authority and somehow retroactively clean them up ... this is not how anything can possibly work."
"At some point the courts really need to start holding the DOJ in contempt. With real consequences," neuroscientist Kevin Wright wrote.
"As long we’re making up new rules and powers for ourselves, I hereby retroactively unappoint Bondi and deratify everything she’s done in office," comics writer Greg Pak posted.
Click here to read the DOJ's filing in full.