On Wednesday, Politico was first to report that cosplay US Attorney Lindsey Halligan got no-billed again in her pursuit of Letitia James.
Since Judge Cameron Currie dismissed the original indictment of the New York Attorney General along with charges against Jim Comey, prosecutors at the Eastern District of Virginia have tried twice to secure a new indictment. The first presentation in Norfolk, where the supposed mortgage fraud took place, fell flat. And last week as similar effort ran aground in Alexandria. But as with so much that Halligan touches, this too went sideways in ways no one could have anticipated.
For reasons not entirely clear from the record, no attorney from EDVA was present on December 11 when the grand jury returned the no true bill to the magistrate in open court. It was not until the 12th that the government moved to seal the failed indictment. By then it had already been reported by multiple news outlets, and so Magistrate Judge William Porter rejected the request.
Hilariously, the government argued that the proceedings must be sealed to further the public policy goal of protecting “the individual accused of a crime from the expense of standing trial where there was no probability of guilt.” Judge Porter noted an “important corollary” is the public interest in vindicating the reputation of a person previously indicted on bogus charges.
“The Court will not speculate why the grand jury disclosed the no bill in open court,” he wrote, but added that “The grand jury’s decision to make this no bill public serves the interest of transparency when an individual has already suffered the stigma of public criminal charges.”
Whatever the jury’s thinking, putting the no bill on the public docket reveals the evolution of the government’s position. The first time around, Halligan presented the case herself and secured an indictment for mortgage fraud based on a theory that James falsely claimed she was buying a house in Roanoke as a second home, when in fact she intended to use it as a rental property. The government claimed that James netted “thousands” of dollars in rental income. Halligan, who is still presenting herself as a US Attorney, even texted reporter Anna Bower of Lawfare to insist that the New York Times report that James’s niece had always lived there and failed to pay rent was wrong.
Now the government has changed its tune. This time they say James’s crime was telling the mortgage company that she was buying the property as a second home when in fact she “intended to purchase a home for a family member who would not otherwise qualify for a mortgage loan on her own and that family member continuously occupied the [] property after JAMES purchased it.” The theory is that James got a lower interest rate than she would have if she’d admitted she was buying the house for her niece, although the government makes no representation that she actually saved any money on the loan. The only mention of “rent” is the government’s claim that James declared the property as a rental on her federal income taxes and said she occupied the property zero nights.
This would appear to concede that the entire first case was bullshit. It also suggests that Roger Keller, the assistant US Attorney on loan from the Eastern District of Missouri, had qualms about presenting a theory of the case that Halligan did not. Specifically, Halligan may have secured an indictment without telling grand jurors in Alexandria that James’s niece testified to a grand jury in Norfolk that she never paid rent, as reported by the Times. If so, it’s not a strategy Keller was willing to repeat.
But Halligan may have to enter the arena again if she hopes to secure an indictment of Trump’s enemies. CNN reports that on Wednesday, AUSA Keller was back in Missouri, where he told a judge that he’d “just recently returned from a six-week detail on the government’s behalf in Virginia.”
If there are to be more no bills, it won’t be his name on ’em.
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
The post Botched No Bill For Tish James Reveals Halligan’s Case Is Bullshit appeared first on Above the Law.
On Wednesday, Politico was first to report that cosplay US Attorney Lindsey Halligan got no-billed again in her pursuit of Letitia James.
Since Judge Cameron Currie dismissed the original indictment of the New York Attorney General along with charges against Jim Comey, prosecutors at the Eastern District of Virginia have tried twice to secure a new indictment. The first presentation in Norfolk, where the supposed mortgage fraud took place, fell flat. And last week as similar effort ran aground in Alexandria. But as with so much that Halligan touches, this too went sideways in ways no one could have anticipated.
For reasons not entirely clear from the record, no attorney from EDVA was present on December 11 when the grand jury returned the no true bill to the magistrate in open court. It was not until the 12th that the government moved to seal the failed indictment. By then it had already been reported by multiple news outlets, and so Magistrate Judge William Porter rejected the request.
Hilariously, the government argued that the proceedings must be sealed to further the public policy goal of protecting “the individual accused of a crime from the expense of standing trial where there was no probability of guilt.” Judge Porter noted an “important corollary” is the public interest in vindicating the reputation of a person previously indicted on bogus charges.
“The Court will not speculate why the grand jury disclosed the no bill in open court,” he wrote, but added that “The grand jury’s decision to make this no bill public serves the interest of transparency when an individual has already suffered the stigma of public criminal charges.”
Whatever the jury’s thinking, putting the no bill on the public docket reveals the evolution of the government’s position. The first time around, Halligan presented the case herself and secured an indictment for mortgage fraud based on a theory that James falsely claimed she was buying a house in Roanoke as a second home, when in fact she intended to use it as a rental property. The government claimed that James netted “thousands” of dollars in rental income. Halligan, who is still presenting herself as a US Attorney, even texted reporter Anna Bower of Lawfare to insist that the New York Times report that James’s niece had always lived there and failed to pay rent was wrong.
Now the government has changed its tune. This time they say James’s crime was telling the mortgage company that she was buying the property as a second home when in fact she “intended to purchase a home for a family member who would not otherwise qualify for a mortgage loan on her own and that family member continuously occupied the [] property after JAMES purchased it.” The theory is that James got a lower interest rate than she would have if she’d admitted she was buying the house for her niece, although the government makes no representation that she actually saved any money on the loan. The only mention of “rent” is the government’s claim that James declared the property as a rental on her federal income taxes and said she occupied the property zero nights.
This would appear to concede that the entire first case was bullshit. It also suggests that Roger Keller, the assistant US Attorney on loan from the Eastern District of Missouri, had qualms about presenting a theory of the case that Halligan did not. Specifically, Halligan may have secured an indictment without telling grand jurors in Alexandria that James’s niece testified to a grand jury in Norfolk that she never paid rent, as reported by the Times. If so, it’s not a strategy Keller was willing to repeat.
But Halligan may have to enter the arena again if she hopes to secure an indictment of Trump’s enemies. CNN reports that on Wednesday, AUSA Keller was back in Missouri, where he told a judge that he’d “just recently returned from a six-week detail on the government’s behalf in Virginia.”
If there are to be more no bills, it won’t be his name on ’em.
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
