Halligan
(Photo
by
Al
Drago/Getty
Images)
On
Wednesday,
Politico
was
first
to
report
that
cosplay
US
Attorney
Lindsey
Halligan
got
no-billed
again
in
her
pursuit
of
Letitia
James.
Since
Judge
Cameron
Currie
dismissed
the
original
indictment
of
the
New
York
Attorney
General
along
with
charges
against
Jim
Comey,
prosecutors
at
the
Eastern
District
of
Virginia
have
tried
twice
to
secure
a
new
indictment.
The
first
presentation
in
Norfolk,
where
the
supposed
mortgage
fraud
took
place,
fell
flat.
And
last
week
as
similar
effort
ran
aground
in
Alexandria.
But
as
with
so
much
that
Halligan
touches,
this
too
went
sideways
in
ways
no
one
could
have
anticipated.
For
reasons
not
entirely
clear
from
the
record,
no
attorney
from
EDVA
was
present
on
December
11
when
the
grand
jury
returned
the
no
true
bill
to
the
magistrate
in
open
court.
It
was
not
until
the
12th
that
the
government
moved
to
seal
the
failed
indictment.
By
then
it
had
already
been
reported
by
multiple
news
outlets,
and
so
Magistrate
Judge
William
Porter
rejected
the
request.
Hilariously,
the
government
argued
that
the
proceedings
must
be
sealed
to
further
the
public
policy
goal
of
protecting
“the
individual
accused
of
a
crime
from
the
expense
of
standing
trial
where
there
was
no
probability
of
guilt.”
Judge
Porter
noted
an
“important
corollary”
is
the
public
interest
in
vindicating
the
reputation
of
a
person
previously
indicted
on
bogus
charges.
“The
Court
will
not
speculate
why
the
grand
jury
disclosed
the
no
bill
in
open
court,”
he
wrote,
but
added
that
“The
grand
jury’s
decision
to
make
this
no
bill
public
serves
the
interest
of
transparency
when
an
individual
has
already
suffered
the
stigma
of
public
criminal
charges.”
Whatever
the
jury’s
thinking,
putting
the
no
bill
on
the
public
docket
reveals
the
evolution
of
the
government’s
position.
The
first
time
around,
Halligan
presented
the
case
herself
and
secured
an
indictment
for
mortgage
fraud
based
on
a
theory
that
James
falsely
claimed
she
was
buying
a
house
in
Roanoke
as
a
second
home,
when
in
fact
she
intended
to
use
it
as
a
rental
property.
The
government
claimed
that
James
netted
“thousands”
of
dollars
in
rental
income.
Halligan,
who
is
still
presenting
herself
as
a
US
Attorney,
even
texted
reporter
Anna
Bower
of
Lawfare
to
insist
that
the
New
York
Times
report
that
James’s
niece
had
always
lived
there
and
failed
to
pay
rent
was
wrong.
Now
the
government
has
changed
its
tune.
This
time
they
say
James’s
crime
was
telling
the
mortgage
company
that
she
was
buying
the
property
as
a
second
home
when
in
fact
she
“intended
to
purchase
a
home
for
a
family
member
who
would
not
otherwise
qualify
for
a
mortgage
loan
on
her
own
and
that
family
member
continuously
occupied
the
[]
property
after
JAMES
purchased
it.”
The
theory
is
that
James
got
a
lower
interest
rate
than
she
would
have
if
she’d
admitted
she
was
buying
the
house
for
her
niece,
although
the
government
makes
no
representation
that
she
actually
saved
any
money
on
the
loan.
The
only
mention
of
“rent”
is
the
government’s
claim
that
James
declared
the
property
as
a
rental
on
her
federal
income
taxes
and
said
she
occupied
the
property
zero
nights.
This
would
appear
to
concede
that
the
entire
first
case
was
bullshit.
It
also
suggests
that
Roger
Keller,
the
assistant
US
Attorney
on
loan
from
the
Eastern
District
of
Missouri,
had
qualms
about
presenting
a
theory
of
the
case
that
Halligan
did
not.
Specifically,
Halligan
may
have
secured
an
indictment
without
telling
grand
jurors
in
Alexandria
that
James’s
niece
testified
to
a
grand
jury
in
Norfolk
that
she
never
paid
rent,
as
reported
by
the
Times.
If
so,
it’s
not
a
strategy
Keller
was
willing
to
repeat.
But
Halligan
may
have
to
enter
the
arena
again
if
she
hopes
to
secure
an
indictment
of
Trump’s
enemies.
CNN
reports
that
on
Wednesday,
AUSA
Keller
was
back
in
Missouri,
where
he
told
a
judge
that
he’d
“just
recently
returned
from
a
six-week
detail
on
the
government’s
behalf
in
Virginia.”
If
there
are
to
be
more
no
bills,
it
won’t
be
his
name
on
’em.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.