Lindsey Halligan, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is being investigated by the Florida bar after her brief tenure with the Justice Department became mired in controversy.
Trump appointed Halligan to be Virginia’s top prosecutor, but her appointment was ruled unlawful last fall for technical reasons. Halligan was ordered to leave the post, and a panel of federal judges selected her replacement last month. Allegations that indictments Halligan secured against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were fueled by political animus provoked controversy during her short-lived position, leading a left-leaning legal watchdog group to urge the Florida and Virginia bars to investigate her over ethics concerns last November.
A Florida bar official confirmed it is probing Halligan in a letter to that watchdog group known as the Campaign for Accountability. The investigation is “pending,” read the letter, which was reported by the New York Times.
There are no details in the letter about what the bar is investigating. In previous statements, Campaign for Accountability Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith had railed against Halligan’s move to stay in her post until January, long after a judge ruled in November that her appointment to replace Erik Siebert as an interim attorney was illegal.
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The Trump administration disagreed with the judge’s interpretation of a federal law, which limits temporary appointments to 120 days. The court said Attorney General Pam Bondi used up the allotted 120-day interim appointment on Siebert before he resigned in September, making her move to promote Halligan unlawful. Bondi’s team contended that the 120-day term limit does not bar her from making repeated interim appointments.
“Two federal judges found that Ms. Halligan operated without legal authority, with one finding she openly defied court orders, and another concluded she misled a grand jury,” Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith said in a statement last month, slamming the Virginia Bar for declining to bring an investigation against Halligan. “Contrary to the Virginia State Bar’s claims, it has the authority and must act to investigate these serious allegations and hold Ms. Halligan accountable.”