Lindsey Halligan, the top prosecutor appointed by President Donald Trump in the Eastern District of Virginia, told a federal judge Tuesday she can persist in calling herself the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia following a different judge’s ruling that she had been unlawfully installed to the post.
Her defense came in court filings in response to U.S. District Judge David Novak’s order last week, which ordered her to explain why her representations in court papers do not represent a “false or misleading statement,” which he suggested could result in disciplinary measures.
“The Court’s thinly veiled threat to use attorney discipline to cudgel the Executive Branch into conforming its legal position in all criminal prosecutions to the views of a single district judge is a gross abuse of power and an affront to the separation of powers,” the 11-page filing states. “The bottom line is that Ms. Halligan has not ‘misrepresented’ anything and the Court is flat wrong to suggest that any change to the Government’s signature block is warranted in this or any other case.”…
Lindsey Halligan Insists She Can Continue to Use US Attorney Title
