XPost: misc.legal, law.court.federal, va.politics   
   XPost: sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department officials on Tuesday accused a   
   federal judge of abusing his power in demanding that Trump loyalist   
   Lindsey Halligan explain why she continues to identify herself as a U.S.   
   Attorney in Virginia despite another judge’s ruling that she was illegally   
   appointed.   
      
   Halligan secured charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New   
   York Attorney General Letitia James at President Donald Trump’s urging   
   before U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie decided in November that   
   both cases must be dismissed due to Halligan’s invalid appointment.   
      
   Last Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David Novak in Richmond, Virginia,   
   ordered Halligan to explain in writing why it isn’t false or misleading   
   for her to continue identifying herself as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern   
   District of Virginia after Currie’s ruling.   
      
   In a strongly worded response co-signed by Halligan, Attorney General Pam   
   Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, they argued that nothing   
   in Currie’s order prohibits Halligan from acting as U.S. Attorney or using   
   that title.   
      
   “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,” they wrote.   
      
   Novak, who was nominated to the bench by Trump during his first term in   
   the White House, is a former federal prosecutor. He overlapped for a time   
   in the Eastern District of Virginia with Comey, who was previously a   
   supervisor in that office.   
      
      
   Halligan, a former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial   
   experience, was Trump’s pick to lead one of the Justice Department’s most   
   important offices. She replaced Erik Siebert, a veteran prosecutor who   
   resigned in September as interim U.S. Attorney amid Trump administration   
   pressure to file charges against both Comey and James.   
      
   A grand jury indicted Comey three days after Bondi swore in Halligan.   
   James was charged two weeks later.   
      
   In an unrelated criminal case, Novak questioned why he shouldn’t strike   
   Halligan’s name from the indictment. He cited court rules that make it   
   professional misconduct for attorneys to make false or misleading   
   statements.   
      
   In their response, the Justice Department officials said Novak’s “fixation   
   on a signature block title is untethered from how federal courts actually   
   operate.”   
      
   “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,” they wrote.   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/trump-lindsey-halligan-judge-   
   73666a58a79a856c375ac194255a9a48   
      
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