The US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia is one of the most significant positions in the Department of Justice.
Erik Siebert, the federal prosecutor whom President Donald Trump pushed out last Friday for declining to prosecute his political enemies, had extensive experience. He is listed as an attorney on 675 federal cases. His replacement, Lindsey Halligan, a 36-year-old former Florida insurance lawyer, has worked on only three.
But for an administration in which loyalty reigns supreme, what matters is who Halligan has represented in each of those federal cases: Donald Trump.
An attorney in Florida remembered Halligan as nice and professional, but was “kind of shocked, frankly” when she began to work for Trump.
The decision to make Halligan one of the country’s top prosecutors is a major escalation in Trump’s efforts to weaponize the Justice Department. Halligan, who was previously tasked with helping to rid the Smithsonian of “improper ideology,” was sworn in on an interim basis on Monday. Her predecessor, Siebert, was installed by Trump in January and officially nominated by the president in May. He was forced out after he declined to bring charges against two of Trump’s enemies: New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
James is facing unsubstantiated allegations related to mortgage fraud, while Comey is facing similarly weak claims about lying to Congress. People familiar with the cases told the Washington Post that there was not enough evidence to move forward with either.
Instead of accepting the lack of evidence, Trump is trying to make Halligan—his former lawyer and White House aide—into the legal equivalent of a contract killer. She has zero experience as a prosecutor. Her mandate from the president is not to pursue what is normally considered justice but to subject people who have gone after Trump to legal harassment.
Trump made that clear in a Saturday evening post on Truth Social that was addressed to his attorney general, Pam Bondi. “Pam,” the president wrote. “I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.’”
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump added. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Three hours later, Trump put up another post stating that it was his “honor to appoint Lindsey Halligan” to be the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. In that role, the Washington Post has reported that Halligan will hold “one of the most sensitive posts in the Justice Department, leading around 300 lawyers and staff, overseeing complex national security investigations and representing federal agencies such as the Defense Department and CIA in court.”
Halligan joins other underqualified appointees using top prosecutorial positions to push seemingly questionable criminal investigations of political opponents.
Alina Habba, another former Trump defense attorney, was installed as interim US Attorney for New Jersey in March. In that role, she quickly charged Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver with assaulting and interfering with law enforcement officials outside an oversight visit to an immigration detention facility in Newark. McIver pleaded not guilty and dubbed the prosecution “political intimidation.” Following a battle over Habba’s appointment, a federal judge last month ruled that she was not legally serving as US Attorney.
In January, Ed Martin, a former Stop the Steal organizer, was made acting US Attorney in DC. In that role, he threatened to prosecute various Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Trump selected him for the permanent position in March but pulled his nomination in the face of bipartisan opposition in the Senate. But Martin has stuck around. He now leads a DOJ task force pursuing Trump foes, including New York Attorney General James. (Martin even posed for photographs outside James’ home in August, while wearing a trench coat.)
Halligan is similarly close to the president. Trump has claimed that she would be qualified for her role partly because she was a “Partner at the biggest Law Firm in Florida,” where she “proved herself to be a tremendous trial lawyer.” But her legal background is less distinguished than Trump’s post might suggest.
After graduating from the University of Miami School of Law in 2013, the new US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia went on to become a partner at one of the Fort Lauderdale offices of Cole, Scott & Kissane in 2018. That distinction, according to CSK’s website, can be claimed by more than 260 people who are currently partners at the firm. (Before joining the firm, Halligan reportedly interned at the Innocence Project, as well as the Miami-Dade County public defender’s office.)
At CSK, South Florida court records show that Halligan largely defended insurance companies that were being sued by homeowners who believed they were entitled to better coverage. In many cases, Halligan also represented home insurance companies against relatively small-time corporate plaintiffs with names like Water Dryout, Moisture Rid, and Water Restoration Guys. These cases—some of which were filed as small claims—were often resolved without the need for a trial. (Halligan’s name appears on her former law firm’s website only once—in a press release that notes that she and another attorney had achieved a “complete defense verdict in a denied roof leak case in Broward County” involving more than $500,000 of claimed damages.)
David Comras, the founding attorney at Comras & Comras in Fort Lauderdale, said he handled a few cases in which Halligan represented the companies his clients were suing. He remembered Halligan being nice and professional, but was “kind of shocked, frankly” when she leapt from that work to Trump’s legal team. He was similarly surprised that someone who handled Florida home insurance cases was now a top federal prosecutor in Virginia.
Halligan told the Washington Post that she met Trump at a November 2021 event at his golf club in West Palm Beach. A former contestant in Miss Colorado USA pageants, Halligan has said that she probably stood out to Trump during their initial meeting because—unlike other women at the event—she was wearing a suit. Trump hired her as a lawyer soon after.
Halligan was at Mar-a-Lago during the FBI’s 2022 raid of the club. And she went on to represent Trump in a civil suit related to the raid. According to court records, it was the first time she had represented a client in a federal litigation.
At the start of the case in August 2022, Judge Aileen Cannon rejected two filings Halligan submitted for failing to comply with local procedures. The judge directed Halligan to the court’s website for instructions on how to file the documents correctly.
Two days later, Halligan submitted a notice updating her contact information. That filing was similarly rejected by the court. “Attorney has not followed the required procedures for updating their address with the Court…” a court notice explained. “See the Court’s website for detailed instructions.”
Lawyers who worked with Halligan on the case have defended her legal work. Tim Parlatore told the New York Times that he “found her to be very hard-working, intelligent and also with a deep understanding not only of what was going on in the case but what the president’s priorities were.”
Halligan also actively defended Trump on camera in appearances on Fox News, Newsmax, and Bill O’Reilly’s show. During the 2024 campaign, she was awarded a front-row seat in Trump’s box at the Republican National Convention. After Trump won in November, Halligan joined the president in the White House.
In March, Trump named Halligan in an executive order that claimed to seek to “restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness.” (The order listed Halligan’s title as “Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Associate Staff Secretary.”) The order said Halligan would work to “remove improper ideology” from Smithsonian facilities, including the National Zoo.
Now Halligan has been given a far more important role after her predecessor was forced out for not prosecuting Trump’s foes. As Trump put it in his post announcing her appointment, he expects her to do “GREAT things for JUSTICE.” There is little doubt about what he means by that.
