On Thursday, Donald Trump’s insurance coverage lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, will defend her proper to steer the US Legal professional’s Workplace within the Japanese District of Virginia. It should possible be one in all her final acts on the job. The one actual query is whether or not she’ll take the James Comey and Letitia James indictments together with her, or whether or not they’ll limp on a bit longer underneath another prosecutorial authority.
The Three Hat Dance
Legal professional Common Pam Bondi actually is aware of how handy a US Legal professional’s Workplace over to one in all Trump’s cronies. Since July, she’s been utilizing the identical maneuver to put in unconfirmable MAGA dolts to the highest prosecutor’s job:
- Step 1: Appoint crony as interim US Legal professional for 120 days underneath 28 USC § 546.
- Step 2: When it turns into clear that no Senate affirmation is coming, appoint mentioned crony as first assistant US Legal professional, after which declare that crony is routinely promoted to appearing US Legal professional by operation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
- Step 3: Concurrently appoint crony as a particular legal professional underneath 28 USC § 509, 510, and 515.
It’s a little bit rickety, but it surely’s kind of labored, thus far — a minimum of to the extent that the cronies have nonetheless been capable of cost circumstances. Three federal courts dominated that Steps 1 and a couple of aren’t authorized, since they’d successfully get rid of Senate affirmation for US Attorneys. Why would any president hassle nominating somebody when he can string collectively an limitless string of interim appointments, doubtlessly of the identical crony? However no decide has dismissed a case based mostly on the US Legal professional’s illegal appointment, since Assistant US Attorneys who do the precise work of charging circumstances have the ability to indict and prosecute as nicely.
However on September 22, Pam Bondi solely slapped the primary hat on Lindsey Halligan, appointing her interim US Legal professional under § 546. That was tempting destiny, since a federal decide in Pennsylvania had already dominated that § 546 solely permits for one 120-day interim appointment, after which solely the district’s judges might appoint an interim lead prosecutor till the Senate confirms a pending nominee. And it was doubly tempting destiny since Halligan was the one lawyer at EDVA who would get wherever close to the Comey and James circumstances.
Halligan was the only lawyer to current these indictments to a grand jury, and he or she’s the one one who signed them. So if she wasn’t legally appointed, these circumstances would seem like DOA.
Scorching Tub Time Machine DOJ
Pam Bondi is presently making an attempt to do the three-hat dance in reverse. After Comey and James filed motions to dismiss noting that three courts have discovered that the president can not make successive interim appointments, Bondi signed a new order purporting to retroactively designate Halligan as a particular legal professional underneath §§ 509, 510, and 515 “as of September 22” — successfully touring again in time six weeks and sticking the third hat on Halligan earlier than she secured the indictments.
Alternatively, Bondi claimed to have “ratified” the indictments, blessing them submit facto and curing any defect arising from the unlucky technicality that Halligan had no proper to be within the grand jury room.
After Pat Fitzgerald and Abbe Lowell spent ten stable minutes laughing their asses off — PRESUMABLY! — they filed their replies.
Lipstick on a pig
“Legal professional Common Bondi doesn’t have a time machine,” James’s legal professionals jeered , including that “Simply as President Trump couldn’t announce tomorrow that he’s ‘appointing’ Legal professional Common Bondi because the appearing Administrator of NASA from January 2025 to March 2025, Legal professional Common Bondi lacked the ability announce an appointment of Ms. Halligan that bent area and time.”
They have been equally derisive in regards to the authorities’s declare that Halligan was functionally an AUSA in September, somewhat than a White Home aide tasked with de-woke-ing the Smithsonian: “The issue is that Ms. Halligan introduced this indictment as a non-public citizen with no authority to litigate on behalf of the USA. No quantity of ex-post maneuvering can rescue this illegal indictment from dismissal.”
James calls dismissal with prejudice “the one treatment that can promote the pursuits protected by the Appointments Clause and deter the federal government from deploying illegal appointments to effectuate retaliation towards perceived political opponents” — primarily tying it into her movement to dismiss for selective and vindictive prosecution.
Comey’s reply echoes James’s, scoffing at Bondi’s reliance on a idea of § 546 that has already been rejected by three courts. However his argument towards Bondi’s “ratification” and for dismissal with prejudice is even stronger than James’s, because the statute of limitations on his “crimes” has now expired.
Comey quotes the Supreme Court docket’s holding in FEC v. NRA Political Victory Fund, discovering it “important that the get together ratifying ought to find a way not merely to do the act ratified on the time the act was executed, but additionally on the time the ratification was made.” Bondi couldn’t indict him right now as a result of the statute of limitations has run, and so she will’t retroactively ratify an indictment that was improperly obtained six weeks in the past.
One thing to recollect you by
This morning Decide Cameron McGowan Currie will think about the motions to disqualify Halligan and dismiss the indictments. We may additionally get a sign of how egregiously inappropriate Halligan’s grand jury shows have been, because the courtroom has been mulling them over for greater than every week.
Decide Currie, who was seconded from the District Court docket of South Carolina to listen to the disqualification movement, ordered the federal government to show grand jury transcripts in each circumstances for in digital camera evaluation. Within the Comey case, she later filed a second order noting that the federal government’s manufacturing “fails to incorporate remarks made by the indictment signer each earlier than and after the testimony of the only witness, which remarks have been referenced by the indictment signer throughout the witness’s testimony.” Halligan additionally forgot to incorporate info on the primary indictment, for which she acquired no-billed.
So, issues are usually not trying nice for the “indictment signer.” And that’s earlier than she has to defend these fakakta circumstances on the deserves! However, even when she does get get tossed off this case tomorrow or subsequent week, Halligan will take a memento together with her — one thing to recollect at the present time by. And that one thing is … a bar complaint.
On Tuesday, the Marketing campaign for Accountability notified the Florida and Virginia bars of potential violations of their respective guidelines {of professional} conduct. The nonprofit means that Halligan: violated her obligations of candor and competence; made extrajudicial statements; introduced a prosecution she is aware of isn’t supported by possible trigger; and engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, deceit, misrepresentation, or conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.
So, no matter occurs, she’s acquired that to stay up for.
Subscribe to read more at Law and Chaos….
Liz Dye produces the Regulation and Chaos Substack and podcast. You may subscribe by clicking the brand:
