By Devan Cole, CNN
(CNN) — A federal judge on Tuesday ripped into Lindsey Halligan, President Donald Trump’s personal choice as the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, after she used unusually sharp language to push back on the judge’s questioning of her authority, saying the “unnecessary rhetoric” had “a level of vitriol more appropriate for a cable news talk show.”
The assessment from US District Judge David Novak, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, is the latest dramatic development in a months-long legal saga surrounding Halligan, whose tenure was cut short after a judge determined in November that she was unlawfully serving in the role.
That decision, which effectively killed criminal cases Halligan brought at the president’s urging against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James, should have also meant that Halligan no longer represented herself as the US attorney leading the office, according to judges in the district. But she continued to use the title on court documents, drawing the ire of Novak and other judges who thought she was openly flouting the ruling.
“Ms. Halligan has continued to identify herself as the United States Attorney for this District in pleadings, including on the indictment and other pleadings in this case,” Novak wrote in an 18-page ruling in a criminal case brought by Halligan’s office. “I elected to give Ms. Halligan an opportunity to explain her position … After reviewing Ms. Halligan’s filing and piercing through the unnecessary rhetoric, I find her position to be unavailing.”
“Ms. Halligan’s response, in which she was joined by both the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General, contains a level of vitriol more appropriate for a cable news talk show and falls far beneath the level of advocacy expected from litigants in this Court, particularly the Department of Justice,” the judge wrote. “The Court will not engage in a similar tit-for-tat.”
Novak said Halligan cannot continue to ignore the ruling issued last year by US District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, which found that her appointment was invalid, and warned that Halligan “and anyone who joins her on a pleading containing the improper moniker” could be subjected to potential disciplinary action.
But he spared Halligan from facing such consequences for now. He pointed out she had no prosecutorial experience when she took the helm of the US Attorney’s office in September and said he was giving her the benefit of the doubt.
“In light of her inexperience, the court grants Ms. Halligan the benefit of the doubt and refrains from referring her for further investigation and disciplinary action regarding her misrepresentations to this Court at this time,” Novak wrote.
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Novak’s r