Left: Lindsey Halligan, special assistant to the president, speaks with a reporter outside of the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin). Right: FILE – New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press briefing, Feb. 16, 2024, in New York (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File).
While unsurprisingly following in James Comey's footsteps and teasing a challenge of the legitimacy of "purported" interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday tore into the prosecutor as a professional rules "violator-in-chief" for lecturing a journalist on Signal about the case just days after the bank fraud indictment was handed up.
The filing, submitted by James' attorneys Abbe Lowell and Andrew Bosse, was a scathing critique of a blunder that sparked national headlines and scorn.
Halligan, President Donald Trump's former defense attorney and a rookie prosecutor, reached out to Lawfare's Anna Bower on Signal and berated the reporter for posting her "just way off" and "biased conclusions" on social media about a New York Times story on the merits of the case against Trump's longtime rival.
As Law&Crime has reported, James was indicted for bank fraud on Oct. 9, after Halligan told a grand jury that the Democratic AG lied on bank documents to secure a "more favorable loan" on a Norfolk, Va., property, allegedly treating the residence as a "rental investment," rather than a personal secondary residence, and amassing close to $19,000 in "ill-gotten gains."
Two days later, Halligan reached out to Bower via Signal, unsolicited, and touched on secret grand jury proceedings while evidently operating under the assumption that the exchange that Bower did not initiate was entirely off the record because the encrypted app messages were set to disappear after eight hours. Bower, who explained she never agreed to an off-the-record exchange, went ahead and published the texts in full, an incident that reportedly did not go over well inside Trump world.
Now James' lawyers have pounced, asking U.S. District Judge Jamar Walker, a Joe Biden appointee, to ensure a fair trial by "stem[ming] the tide of inflammatory extrajudicial comments" and ordering the Trump administration's "counsel and agents in this case to obey all relevant federal laws and regulations regarding proper records retention, preserve all communications with any media person, journalist, or outlet, and take all reasonable steps to prevent the deletion or destruction of any records or communications having anything to do with the investigation and prosecution of this case."
"Proactive intervention by this Court is necessary to protect Attorney General James' constitutional rights and the integrity of this Court's procedures," the filing continued.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox
James accused Halligan of running "afoul" of Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Code of Federal Regulations, Eastern District of Virginia local rules, "various rules of ethical and professional responsibility" — including the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct — and the DOJ's Justice Manual.
Halligan's "extrajudicial statements and prejudicial disclosures" to Bower, all while setting Signal messages to disappear — in a "likely violation of the federal records laws and rules around using unapproved electronic messaging accounts" — must be stopped, the filing said.
Adding that Halligan's dearth of prosecutorial experience is no excuse, James' lawyers slammed the "purported" interim U.S. attorney for making out-of-court statements that had a "substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding[.]"
"As the prosecutor who is 'handling the case' against Attorney General James and purporting to be the U.S. Attorney, Ms. Halligan is supposed to be the standard-bearer of the professional responsibility rules rather than the District's violator-in-chief," the filing said.
James separately informed the court that she will file a motion to dismiss the indictment based on Halligan's allegedly unlawful appointment, a position shared by ex-FBI director Comey.
Noting that, as in the Comey case, the motion will need to be handled by an "out-of-district judge" within the 4th Circuit, James suggested that their motions to dismiss be "consolidated."
Senior U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, a Bill Clinton appointee in South Carolina, has been designated to handle the Comey motion.
Follow Law&Crime:
