The confrontation escalates a months-long conflict between the executive branch and the federal judiciary over Halligan’s disputed appointment — one that a separate federal judge struck down in November, leading to the dismissal of charges Halligan had secured against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James at Trump’s urging.
The Justice Department on Tuesday accused a federal judge of abusing his power after he ordered a Trump-appointed prosecutor to explain why she continues to identify herself as a U.S. Attorney despite a ruling that her appointment was illegal.
The target of the rebuke was U.S. District Judge David Novak of Richmond, Virginia, who last week ordered Lindsey Halligan to explain in writing why it was not false or misleading for her to continue using the U.S. Attorney title for the Eastern District of Virginia. Novak’s order followed a November ruling by U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie that Halligan’s appointment was invalid and that charges she had secured against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James at President Donald Trump’s urging must be dismissed.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Halligan co-signed the Justice Department’s response on Tuesday. They argued that nothing in Currie’s order prohibits Halligan from acting as U.S. Attorney or using the 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.
The response accused Novak of weaponizing the threat of attorney discipline against the executive branch.
“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.
The department also said Novak’s focus on Halligan’s title was “untethered from how federal courts actually operate.”
Novak, who was nominated to the bench by Trump during his first term, is a former federal prosecutor who served for a time in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Comey was previously a supervisor.
Halligan’s appointment and the dismissed cases
Halligan, a former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience, was Trump’s pick to lead one of the Justice Department’s most prominent 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.
Currie subsequently found Halligan’s appointment invalid and ordered both cases dismissed. Halligan continued to use the U.S. Attorney title after that ruling. In a separate, unrelated criminal case, Novak questioned whether her name should be removed from the indictment, citing court rules that make it professional misconduct for attorneys to make false or misleading statements. The Justice Department’s response on Tuesday was directed at that inquiry.