The Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney's office is in complete chaos, according to a new report from CNN.
CNN reported Friday that federal judges have lashed out at the Justice Department over U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan. Despite the court ruling that she was improperly appointed to the post, Halligan’s name still appears on some of the paperwork.
Two magistrate judges and a district court judge in Alexandria, Virginia, went so far as to rebuke prosecutors in open court about Halligan’s name on all recent criminal cases, explaining that it should not be there. The documents included a new criminal case filing, guilty plea papers and several indictments.
Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick told prosecutors it was “not acceptable” for charging papers to be filed under Halligan’s name, and both he and Judge Michael Nachmanoff said that, after the ruling, Halligan’s name should not appear on any cases.
Last month, Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Halligan was not lawfully appointed under the standard set by USA v. President Donald Trump, which Judge Aileen Cannon relied on when she found that special counsel Jack Smith had not been lawfully appointed. The Justice Department initially appealed but ultimately ran out of time to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
In Halligan’s situation, if DOJ fights the ruling, it risks a decision that could affect Trump’s classified documents case after he leaves office. Thus far, there has been no appeal in the latter, potentially forcing Trump to decide whether his revenge campaign is more important than safeguarding his classified documents case.
“The law in this district right now is that she is not and has not been the United States Attorney,” Fitzpatrick said this week, CNN reported.
In another, non-Trump-related case before Nachmanoff — who also oversaw the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey — a Honduran man alleged to be in the United States illegally asked that Halligan’s name be struck from the case record.
Nachmanoff said he found it “difficult to reconcile” the court’s opinion with what the Justice Department is doing now, according to a transcript of the Thursday hearing.
In a separate matter involving a criminal case, Fitzpatrick chastised prosecutors on Tuesday, again saying Halligan’s name should be removed. CNN reported that the court transcript quoted the judge saying it “is simply not acceptable."
Magistrate Judge Lindsey Vaala said she would annotate new indictments to acknowledge the ruling on Halligan, CNN reported.
Audio captured from the hearings underscores the continued lack of a formal explanation from Justice Department headquarters about why it believes Halligan can remain in the job, CNN said.
