Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the leading prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, has left her position.
Bondi explained in a statement shared to social media that Democratic senators “weaponized the blue slip process, making it impossible for Lindsey’s term as United States Attorney to continue following the expiration of her 120-day appointment.”
Halligan’s departure “is a significant loss for the Department of Justice and the communities she served,” Bondi added. “While we will feel her absence keenly, we are confident that she will continue to serve her country in other ways.” Bondi further noted that the “circumstances that led to this outcome are deeply misguided. We are living in a time when a democratically elected President’s ability to staff key law enforcement positions faces serious obstacles.”
“The Department of Justice will continue to seek review of decisions like this that hinder our ability to keep the American people safe,” she wrote.
Halligan said she was “subjected to baseless accusations of lying to a tribunal and making false or misleading statements.”
“I was ordered to respond to sua sponte orders and to personally sign filings explaining why my name appeared on pleadings, diverting time and resources from public safety responsibilities. Assistant U.S. Attorneys were told in open court that I should resign,” she wrote, going on to criticize the court for failing to fill an existing vacancy. “In short, the court took no action to fill the vacancy it said already existed,” Halligan said. “The result was a vacuum: the Executive Branch was told it lacked appointment authority, and the Judiciary declined to exercise the authority it claimed was exclusively its own. That contradiction is now on appeal.”
In November, Judge Cameron Currie ruled that Halligan’s appointment was unlawful and dismissed the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
