Trump's Lackey Continues to Identify as a US Attorney, Defying a Court Ruling That Found Her Improperly Appointed

A court ruled that one of Donald Trump’s personal lawyers is not legitimately serving as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia because she was not properly appointed to the job. Now that lawyer is insisting she still fulfills the role despite the court’s order.

Politico explains:

The Trump administration told a federal judge on Tuesday that attorney Lindsey Halligan remains the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, despite a recent court ruling that disqualified her.

The Justice Department laid out its position in an unusually fiery filing before U.S. District Judge David Novak, who ordered officials earlier this month to explain why Halligan continues to act and to identify herself in court papers as the U.S. attorney for the district. …

“To answer the Court’s inquisition directly: ‘the basis for Ms. Halligan’s identification of herself as the United States Attorney, notwithstanding Judge Currie’s contrary ruling’ is that, in the Government’s view, Ms. Halligan is the United States Attorney,” the Justice Department wrote. …

Currie’s November ruling held that Halligan’s appointment violated the Constitution’s appointments clause; invalidated all actions flowing from the defective appointment; and held that the power to appoint a top prosecutor to replace Halligan “lies with the district court until” the Senate confirms a nominee.

This is an attempt to evade the “advice and consent” clause that requires Senate approval for executive appointments, so that Trump can appoint a lackey in place of a qualified candidate.

Also, note that this tussle is happening in a totally unrelated bank robbery case, raising the possibility that Trump’s DOJ will let a bank robber off the hook on a technicality, for lack of a legitimate prosecutor, because it wanted to use this case as a battleground against the power of Congress.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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