Who is Lindsey Halligan, prosecutor in Comey, James cases? : NPR

Federal Judge closed the cases of the Ministry of Justice against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, finding that the prosecutor supervising them was illegally appointed to her position.

That prosecutor is Lindsey Halligan, a 36-year-old former insurance lawyer who served as one of President Trump's personal lawyers after his first term and joined his second administration as a White House aide.

Trump appointed Halligan as acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in late September, the day after her predecessor Eric Siebert resigned under pressure from the President to bring charges against Comey and James.

IN his announcementTrump called Halligan a “tough, smart and loyal lawyer” who “has the strength and determination to be absolutely OUTSTANDING in this new and very important role.”

But Halligan's tenure has been mired in controversy, reaching new heights Monday when U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Curry ruled in the case. ambivalent opinions this is Halligan's appointment was illegal.

The judge found that Halligan's appointment violated federal law it limits interim U.S. attorneys to 120 days, as Siebert has served in the role since January. After 120 days, without Senate confirmation, the vacancy can only be filled by the circuit courts, not the Attorney General.

Curry wrote that Halligan, whom she described as a “former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience,” did not have the “legal authority to bring an indictment” against Comey or James. Since Halligan's signature was the only signature on these documents, they were invalidated.

“All actions resulting from Ms. Halligan's misappointment, including securing and signing Mr. Comey's indictment, were an unlawful exercise of executive power and are hereby rescinded,” Curry wrote.

The decision leaves the door open for the Justice Department to appeal, White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, she downplayed the decision as a “technical decision” and defended Halligan's credibility.

“We believe that the attorney in this case, Lindsey Halligan, is not only extremely qualified for this position, but was in fact legally appointed,” Leavitt said.

Here's what you need to know about the prosecutor at the center of the latest political storm.

Halligan began practicing insurance law

Halligan grew up in Broomfield, Colorado, a suburb about halfway between Denver and Boulder. She played softball and basketball and competed in several competitions. Miss Colorado USA pageantsfinishing third as runner-up in 2009.

She studied politics and broadcast journalism at Regis University, a Jesuit school in Denver. Erica Kirk was also present. According to one professional biographyHalligan's interest in the law began while interning with the Denver City Attorney's Office in college.

She received her law degree from the University of Miami in 2013, interning at the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office and the law school's Miami Innocence Clinic. She began her legal career with the Florida firm of Cole, Scott & Kissane, which specializes in insurance litigation.

Halligan became a partner at the firm in 2018, and the following year earned praise for dismissing a $500,000 property damage claim related to a leaking roof (“George and Lindsay presented evidence that the roof was old and had just passed its normal service life,” the firm said in a release press release at that time).

Halligan told Washington Post earlier this year, she met Trump for the first time at a November 2021 event at his West Palm Beach golf club — months after his first term ended as he was under investigation by both the Justice Department and New York State.

“I saw the same thing I saw when I interned at the Innocence Clinic: someone who was being persecuted by the system,” Halligan told the newspaper.

Halligan went from personal lawyer to presidential assistant

Halligan joined Trump's personal legal team in 2022.

“As a partner in Florida's largest law firm, Lindsay proved herself to be a superb trial lawyer and later represented me (and won!) in the infamous Democratic document forgery case, as well as MANY other large and high-profile cases,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in September.

Halligan and Trump said she was at his Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022 when the FBI raided the home as part of an investigation into his possession of classified documents. She helped defend him in this case both at trial and at trial. there is a TV.

A federal judge appointed by Trump ultimately rejected the decision. in July 2024ruling that the prosecutor was illegally appointed and the Justice Department rejected an appeal after Trump's re-election.

When Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, Halligan joined his administration with two positions: senior assistant secretary of the White House staff and special assistant to the president.

Halligan remained in the public eye, often appearing with him in the Oval Office and US Open.

One of her most notable contributions to the White House was leading his controversial review from more than half a dozen Smithsonian Museums to “ensure compliance” with Trump’s cultural directives. Organization of American Historians called the order, which was published in August, which is “an unacceptable example of continued abuse of power.”

Halligan defended it and took responsibility by saying Washington Post that when she moved to Washington on the eve of Trump's inauguration, some of the museum exhibits she visited seemed to her like “weapons of history.”

“And so I talked to the president about it,” Halligan said, “and I proposed an executive order, and he gave me his blessing, and here we are.”

Halligan accused of making mistakes in cold case

Although Comey and James' cases were dismissed due to Halligan's lack of authority, their lawyers, as well as outside legal experts, have accused Halligan of legal errors in her attempts to prosecute Trump's political enemies.

Halligan's predecessor, Siebert, declined to press charges against both officials due to insufficient evidence. At the time, his office had already begun investigating James for bank fraud related to Application for a mortgage 2020. for real estate in Virginia. Siebert's resignation came hours after Trump told reporters he wanted to “fire” the prosecutor.

Trump announced Halligan's appointment the next day. That same day, Trump posted—and later deleted— social media post appears to be pressuring Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate her political rivals: Comey, James and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California.

Less than 48 hours later, on September 22, Bondi's office issued an order authorizing Halligan to assume the temporary position of U.S. Attorney. announced September 25 that a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Comey with perjury and obstruction of Senate testimony in 2020.

The announcement came five days before the statute of limitations in Comey's case expired—and on Halligan's fourth day on the job.

“She started on Monday – it was Thursday – and tried to get this indictment in the case,” former federal prosecutor Elie Honig told NPR. Morning Edition. “I'll tell you, if I had been in front of a grand jury on my fourth day on the job and tried to bring charges in a complex, high-stakes case like this, I'm sure I would have screwed up, too.”

In the weeks that followed, the grand jury trial became a hot topic. growing legal issues. Earlier this month Magistrate Judge took an unusual step ordering the Justice Department to turn over all grand jury materials to Comey's defense team, citing a “troubling pattern of profound investigative errors.”

The scrutiny intensified even more after hearing last weekin which Halligan confirmed that the full grand jury never reviewed the final indictment against Comey – a shocking revelation that could be enough to throw out the case, even though a prosecutor was present at the hearing downplayed it as a “documentation error”.

Halligan initially sought three charges against Comey, but a grand jury rejected one of them. Halligan or someone else then drafted a new indictment with the charges renumbered, but did not return it for a vote by the grand jury – a step that Honig said “any semi-experienced prosecutor” should not skip.

“It will take 10 minutes,” he added. “Instead, she just brings it to the judge with two jurors, which is not enough. And now she has created this problem for herself through sheer incompetence.”

A few days later, a judge dismissed the case for an entirely different reason.