Halligan
(Photo
by
Al
Drago/Getty
Images)
New
York
Attorney
General
Letitia
James
was
arraigned
this
morning
in
Norfolk
on
charges
of
mortgage
fraud.
This
should
have
been
a
triumphant
day
for
Lindsey
Halligan,
the
insurance
lawyer
turned
US
Attorney
for
the
Eastern
District
of
Virginia.
This
is,
after
all,
what
she
was
hired
to
do.
But
we’re
guessing
it
wasn’t
as
fun
as
she’d
hoped.
Darn
you,
Anna
Bower!
Halligan’s
Signal
messages
hectoring
Lawfare
editor
Anna
Bower
for
posting
a
New
York
Times
story
that
appears
to
undercut
Halligan’s
case
against
James
made
national
news
earlier
this
week,
along
with
her
belated
realization
that
she
needed
to
say
“off
the
record”
first.
Last
night,
those
texts
reappeared
in
a
Motion
to
Enforce
Rules
Prohibiting
the
Government’s
Extrajudicial
Disclosures
filed
by
James’s
lawyer,
the
ubiquitous
Abbe
Lowell
along
with
local
counsel
Andrew
Bosse.
Calling
the
messages
a
“stunning
disclosure
of
internal
government
information,”
the
motion
notes
that
the
exchange
appears
to
violate
FRCrP
6(e),
28
C.F.R.
§
50.2,
EDVA
Local
Criminal
Rule
57.1,
ABA
Model
Rule
3.8
laying
out
the
Special
Responsibilities
of
a
Prosecutor,
and
the
Justice
Manual.
“Attorney
General
James
is
not
at
this
time
formally
moving
for
relief
pursuant
to
FRCrP
6(e),”
the
lawyers
coughed
delicately
in
one
footnote.
In
another
they
observe
that
auto-deleting
messages
violates
federal
records
laws,
and
promise
that
“Attorney
General
James
will
pursue
this
apparent
violation
of
the
law
with
the
appropriate
offices.”
It’s
a
helluva
way
to
start
the
initial
appearance!
James
requested
that
the
court
order
the
prosecution
to
knock
off
the
extrajudicial
disclosures,
preserve
all
communications,
and
“maintain
a
log
of
all
contact
between
any
government
attorney
or
agent
on
this
case
and
any
member
of
the
news
media
or
press
concerning
this
case.”
They
also
noticed
their
intent
to
move
to
disqualify
“purported
interim
U.S.
Attorney
Lindsey
Halligan”
based
on
her
unlawful
appointment.
Halligan
was
already
facing
one
such
motion
from
former
FBI
director
Jim
Comey,
which
was
referred
to
Senior
Judge
Cameron
Currie
of
the
District
of
South
Carolina.
Lowell
suggests
that,
“for
judicial
economy,
the
two
motions
should
likely
be
consolidated.”
So
Halligan
will
only
have
to
explain
once
that,
when
the
Constitution
says
the
president
has
to
get
advice
and
consent
of
the
Senate
to
appoint
US
Attorneys,
it
actually
means
he’s
entitled
to
make
an
unlimited
number
of
interim
appointments
and
not
even
bother
to
nominate
someone
for
the
job.
On
the
plus
side,
she
finally
got
an
actual
prosecutor
to
ride
along
with
her
on
this
madcap
expedition,
although
she
had
to
go
all
the
way
to
Missouri
to
find
one.
As
in
the
Comey
prosecution,
not
a
single
lawyer
in
EDVA
will
get
near
this
shitpile
of
a
case.
And
so,
on
Wednesday
—
after
the
Bower
story
dropped!
—
Roger
A.
Keller,
an
AUSA
from
the
Eastern
District
of
Missouri,
entered
his
appearance.
And
meanwhile,
ABC
confirmed
the
Times’s
reporting
this
morning.
While
Halligan
groused
that
reports
about
James’s
great-niece
living
in
the
house
without
paying
rent
were
incorrect,
ABC
says
that
“prosecutors
found
no
record
of
James
collecting
rent
from
her
niece
beyond
$1,350
that
James
reported
on
her
2020
tax
return,
which
was
said
to
cover
the
cost
of
utilities.”
That
would
comport
with
James’s
2020
financial
disclosure
in
which
she
claimed
$1,000-5,000
in
“investment”
income,
likely
the
utility
bills
paid
by
her
niece.
After
James
pleaded
not
guilty,
Judge
Jamar
Walker
set
a
trial
date
of
January
26.
Welcome
to
the
rocket
docket,
Roger
Walker!
Looks
like
there
may
be
some
turbulence
ahead.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.