Justice Department accuses judge of abusing power, questioning prosecutor’s authority

Ministry of Justice On Tuesday, officials accused a federal judge of abusing his power, demanding trump card Loyal Lindsey Halligan explains why she continues to call herself U.S. Attorney virginia This was despite another judge ruling that her appointment was illegal.

Halligan files charges against former FBI director James Comey and the New York State Attorney General. Letitia James At the urging of President Donald Trump, U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie decided in November that the two cases must be dismissed because Halligan’s appointment was invalid.

Last Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David Novak in Richmond, Virginia, ordered Halligan to explain in writing why she continued to prove she was not false or misleading in her capacity as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after Currie’s ruling.

In a strongly worded response co-signed by Halligan, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Branch, they argued that nothing in Curry’s order bars Halligan from serving as U.S. attorney or using that title.

“The bottom line is that Ms. Halligan did not ‘misrepresent’ anything, and the court is simply wrong to recommend any changes to the government’s signature line in this or any other case,” they wrote.

Novak is a former federal prosecutor who was nominated to the bench by Trump during his first term in the White House. He worked for a time overlapping with Comey in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Comey previously headed the office.

Halligan is a former White House aide with no previous prosecutorial experience, but Trump selected him to lead one of the Justice Department’s most important offices. She replaces veteran prosecutor Erik Siebert, who resigned as interim U.S. attorney in September amid pressure from the Trump administration to bring charges against Comey and James.

Three days after Bundy was sworn in under Harrigan, a grand jury indicted Comey. James was charged two weeks later.

In an unrelated criminal case, Novak questioned why he shouldn’t remove Halligan’s name from the indictment. He cited court rules stating that it is professional misconduct for a lawyer to make false or misleading statements.

In response, Justice Department officials said Nowak’s “obsession with signature block ownership has nothing to do with how federal courts actually operate.”

“The Court’s thinly veiled threat to use attorney discipline to compel the Executive Branch to align its legal position in all criminal proceedings with the views of a single district judge is a gross abuse of power and an affront to the separation of powers,” they wrote.

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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.