By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump’s choice of his former personal lawyer to lead investigations of New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey has sparked concern among former federal prosecutors, who say it shows that the U.S. president is using federal power to target his political foes.
The Republican president tapped Lindsey Halligan, who has spent much of her 11-year legal career on local insurance cases in Florida state court, to lead the U.S. Attorney’s office in eastern Virginia after pushing out Erik Siebert on Friday, following Trump’s complaints that the department hadn’t moved quickly enough to charge James with mortgage fraud.
Trump’s Justice Department has targeted some of his foes, including Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and Democratic U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, over alleged fraud on mortgage documents, a crime a Reuters review showed that the federal government rarely prosecutes. Federal prosecutors in Virginia are also investigating Comey over the FBI’s probe into Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Former federal prosecutors called Trump’s decision to oust a U.S. Attorney for failing to indict his enemies disturbing.
“This is an extremely dangerous development,” said Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches law at George Washington University.
“President Trump is making no secret of his desire to use the criminal justice system to seek retribution and punish his opponents, without regard to the merits of any potential prosecutions,” said Eliason. “That’s the hallmark of an authoritarian, not a democracy governed by the rule of law.”
The White House defended the choice of Halligan, who was sworn in as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia on Monday, according to a Justice Department spokesman.
“Lindsey Halligan is exceptionally qualified to serve as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. She has a proven track record of success and will serve the country with honor and distinction,” said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman.
Halligan did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump on Saturday appeared to directly connect Siebert’s removal to a lack of legal action against his political rivals, writing in a Truth Social post directed at Attorney General Pam Bondi that “nothing is being done” against James, Schiff or Comey.
Abbe Lowell, an attorney who represents James as well as Cook, denounced Siebert’s ouster on Friday.
“This is a brazen attack on the rule of law,” Lowell said in a statement. “This prosecutor did exactly what justice required by following the facts and the evidence, which didn’t support charges against Attorney General James.”
Under Bondi’s leadership, the Justice Department has launched a series of grand jury criminal probes targeting Trump enemies. In addition to James and Cook, Schiff is also facing investigations over mortgage fraud claims. All three cases were referred to the department by Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The department is probing former officials who served under Democratic former President Barack Obama, including Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, after U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard sent a referral claiming without evidence she had uncovered a “treasonous conspiracy” in 2016 to undermine Trump during the 2016 presidential election.
Siebert’s office also led a criminal probe involving Comey and his role in the FBI’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign, which he privately told department officials lacked strong evidence of criminal wrongdoing, Reuters previously reported.
HALLIGAN HAS NO PROSECUTORIAL EXPERIENCE
Trump in a March executive order tasked Halligan, who has been serving as a White House special assistant, with removing “improper ideology” from facilities run by the Smithsonian Institution. Halligan has never previously worked as a prosecutor at the local or federal level, and primarily handled local insurance cases in Florida.
She previously was among the lawyers who represented Trump when he sued the Justice Department after the FBI searched his Florida estate in 2022 for classified documents, in a bid to shield some of the documents from being used against him in the criminal probe.
As U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, she will preside over an office that is known for prosecuting high-profile terrorism and espionage cases.
“This is not the first time that somebody has come to a U.S. Attorney’s office with what appears to be a remarkable lack of relevant experience,” said Juliet Sorensen, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. “What is more concerning is the president’s remarks indicating that he removed the last U.S. Attorney for political reasons, and not because of the quality of his work.”
Another former federal prosecutor, Jason Manning, who worked on cases related to the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, said Halligan’s lack of experience as a prosecutor could hamper her in the role.
“She is being thrust into this role in which she will be under extraordinary political pressure to bring charges against the president’s political opponents, and she will not have any of her own prosecutorial experience to rely on when evaluating whether the charges are meritorious,” Manning said.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by Andrew Goudsward in Washington and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Editing by Scott Malone and Mark Porter)
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