Lindsey Halligan, the insurance coverage lawyer elevated to run the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Japanese District of Virginia, has managed to run face first into knowledgeable wooden chipper time and again throughout her brief and nearly assuredly unlawful tenure.
Thrust into the job as a result of nobody with any prosecutorial expertise would log off on legal instances towards former FBI Director James “8647” Comey and present NY Legal professional Normal Letitia James — cases that make no sense — Halligan approached the duty at hand in a way befitting a graduate of the Dunning Kruger College of Legislation, digging the federal government into successively deeper holes at each flip. Final week, she lastly appeared in courtroom to elucidate herself and it did not go well.
However final week, we thought the dumbest a part of Halligan’s bogus instances can be signing off on indictments with out a hint of authority. Because it seems, it’s a lot worse! Halligan took Comey to courtroom though the grand jury by no means noticed, a lot much less voted on the operative indictment.
Questions concerning the indictment swirled from soar, when the courtroom puzzled why they’d acquired two totally different indictments, confusingly at odds over the variety of fees. The federal government by no means supplied a lot of a passable clarification for this, and finally the Justice of the Peace ordered the DOJ to show over grand jury materials to Comey’s legal professionals. Halligan fought this, and now we all know why: she had, actually, royally screwed up the grand jury course of.
Anna Bower lays out the full timeline, however the brief model is that the grand jury heard three fees and rejected depend one. The Justice Division then drafted a brand new indictment that listed solely the 2 counts that the grand jury had sufficient votes to approve and — with out sending this doc to the grand jury — simply had the foreperson signal it.
For this reason it’s a nasty thought to drive all of the skilled prosecutors out of your workplace. However, bear in mind, all of them needed to go as a result of all of them knew this case was frivolous. Not that the DOJ will admit that…
Todd Blanche is ordering prosecutors to not reply questions from the choose on the identical time we’re studying that the federal government submitted a vibe-backed indictment? Cool, cool, cool.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Legislation and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Be happy to email any suggestions, questions, or feedback. Comply with him on Twitter or Bluesky in the event you’re keen on legislation, politics, and a wholesome dose of school sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
