Donald
Trump’s
Ragin’
Revenge
Tour
bombed
in
yet
another
venue
yesterday,
as
a
grand
jury
in
Norfolk
no-billed
his
effort
to
reindict
New
York
Attorney
General
Letitia
James.
As
ABC
and
MSNOW
were
first
to
report,
the
jurors
didn’t
buy
the
claim
that
James
lied
on
a
2020
mortgage
application
to
purchase
a
house
in
Virginia
for
her
niece
to
live
in.
Turns
out
it’s
not
so
easy
to
get
a
true
bill
when
you’re
competent
and
care
about
ethics!
The
case
was
doomed
from
the
outset.
Florida
insurance
lawyer
Lindsey
Halligan
was
LARPing
as
US
Attorney
for
the
Eastern
District
of
Virginia
on
a
legal
theory
which
had
already
been
rejected
by
three
—
and
now
five!—
federal
courts.
The
New
York
Times
reported
that
a
grand
jury
in
Norfolk
heard
testimony
from
the
niece
in
June,
who
insisted
that
she
never
paid
rent.
But
when
Halligan
presented
to
a
grand
jury
in
Alexandria
in
October,
the
niece
was
never
called.
When
Lawfare
reporter
Anna
Bower
tweeted
out
the
Times
story,
Halligan
messaged
her
on
Signal,
insisting
that
the
reporting
was
wrong
and
then
demanding
after
the
fact
that
the
conversation
be
off
the
record.
Halligan’s
predecessor,
career
prosecutor
Erik
Seibert,
refused
to
indict
on
such
patently
flimsy
charges.
Which
is
why
Trump
pushed
him
out
and
forced
Attorney
General
Bondi
to
install
Halligan.
And
so
it’s
perhaps
unsurprising
that
none
of
the
line
attorneys
at
EDVA
would
get
anywhere
near
the
case,
leaving
Halligan
alone
to
present
to
the
grand
jury.
Just
before
Thanksgiving,
Judge
Cameron
Currie
ruled
that
Halligan
was
never
validly
appointed,
and
since
her
name
was
the
only
one
on
the
indictment,
the
case
was
dismissed.
Bondi
vowed
to
appeal,
but
so
far
the
government
hasn’t
asked
the
Fourth
Circuit
to
weigh
in.
Perhaps
it
dawned
on
someone
at
Main
Justice
that
a
“win”
would
simply
reanimate
the
original,
terrible
James
case,
along
with
the
even
more
defective
Comey
indictment.
Instead,
they’ve
opted
to
try
to
replicate
the
charges,
minus
some
of
the
more
glaring
defects.
But
apparently
the
defects
were
what
made
the
case
possible
in
the
first
place.
In
the
meantime,
courts
in
EDVA
are
getting
a
little
tired
of
Halligan’s
act.
CNN
reports
that
judges
are
refusing
to
accept
as-written
filings
that
refer
to
her
as
the
acting
US
Attorney.
“The
law
in
this
district
right
now
is
that
she
is
not
and
has
not
been
the
United
States
Attorney,”
snapped
Magistrate
Judge
William
Fitzpatrick
on
Tuesday.
As
CNN
notes,
this
sentiment
was
echoed
by
Judge
Michael
Nachmanoff
and
Magistrate
Lindsey
Vaala,
who
observed
that
the
government
is
bound
by
Judge
Currie’s
ruling,
particularly
in
the
absence
of
an
appeal
or
even
a
request
for
stay.
Notably,
the
Comey
indictment
was
returned
to
Judge
Vaala,
assigned
to
Judge
Nachmanoff,
and
handed
off
to
Judge
Fitzpatrick
to
adjudicate
the
privilege
dispute.
Whether
this
is
a
comment
on
Halligan’s
skills
by
the
judges
who’ve
seen
her
in
action
is
left
as
an
exercise
for
the
reader.
The
Comey
case
is
now
time
barred,
although
the
government
claims
it’s
entitled
to
a
six-month
Rumspringa.
But
the
statute
of
limitations
on
mortgage
fraud
is
10
years.
If
she’s
so
inclined,
Halligan,
who
has
now
been
appointed
as
special
counsel,
can
present
to
a
new
grand
jury
every
week
until
she
hits
paydirt.
Maybe
with
a
bit
of
practice,
she
could
get
somewhere
near
competent
…
or
disbarred,
whichever
comes
first.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.