Justice Department accuses judge of abusing power in questioning prosecutor’s authority

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.

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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.