Judges don’t take kindly to being ignored – remember Judge Bad-Ass Boasberg? Who is still, I might add as a side note, determining the possibility of contempt of court. This one’s a little closer to home. Lindsey Halligan has still been doing her job as a prosecutor, even though she has no legal standing since she was found to have been unlawfully appointed. Don’t piss off a judge. With thanks to Raw Story:
A federal judge has ordered Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan to explain herself — and fast. Judge David J. Novak in Richmond, Virginia, gave the controversial prosecutor just a week to justify why she continues signing official court documents as the U.S. attorney for Eastern Virginia, despite being ruled unlawfully appointed, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The DoJ is not going to be happy if they end up being dragged into this. She is not the legal AG as of the day her first two court cases were tossed. And apparently, she has kept going, likely thinking she is untouchable since Trump’s DoJ appointed her. That’s her problem. “Nothing could be further from the truth.” No one is untouchable.
The order comes after another judge, Cameron McGowan Currie, determined the Justice Department violated the Constitution when it installed Halligan in the post. Novak’s order marks the “most robust” pushback yet against Halligan’s refusal to step aside. Novak warned that Halligan’s repeated signing of court papers could constitute “false or misleading statements,” hinting at potential disciplinary action.
Being a favorite isn’t going to help her when she stands before that judge. She’s going to have to answer him without bombing it. Well, considering all the screw-ups in the first two cases, any intelligent person would have cut their losses and left. Being an insurance lawyer will not help her with federal cases. And it certainly won’t help with an explanation to the judge. She’d best start preparing for this one, and ASAP.
Currie previously found that Trump’s back-to-back temporary appointments were unlawful and tossed two high-profile cases Halligan filed against Trump enemies: ex-FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The original prosecutor, Erik Siebert, was fired after refusing to prosecute Comey and James. Trump then tapped Halligan temporarily, a move legal experts have said violates federal law. Novak, himself a Trump appointee, made it clear he believed Currie’s ruling was “binding” despite the Justice Department’s appeal. “Consequently,” he wrote, “it remains the binding precedent in this district and is not subject to being ignored.”
H0 h0 h0. She’s ear deep in alligators, and they have mighty sharp teeth. She has some work to do for this one. She won’t be able to bluff her way through. She really ought to just go ahead and step down, but as we’ve seen, she’s not the brightest rock in the box. We can hope this appearance makes the news, so we know whether they’re going to try to throw in yet another random lawyer for AG, or to leave her in where she doesn’t belong and shouldn’t be. And Trump’s DoJ fuffs it again. This sounds familiar. (Gee, ya THINK??)
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