{"id":135812,"date":"2025-10-24T12:12:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/24\/halligans-signal-messages-enter-the-courtroom-chat\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T12:12:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:12:45","slug":"halligans-signal-messages-enter-the-courtroom-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/24\/halligans-signal-messages-enter-the-courtroom-chat\/","title":{"rendered":"Halligan\u2019s Signal Messages Enter The Courtroom Chat"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Attorney General Letitia James was arraigned this morning in Norfolk on charges of mortgage fraud. This should have been a triumphant day for Lindsey Halligan, the insurance lawyer turned US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. This is, after all, what she was hired to do. But we\u2019re guessing it wasn\u2019t as fun as she\u2019d hoped.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Darn you, Anna Bower! <\/p>\n

Halligan\u2019s Signal messages<\/a> hectoring Lawfare editor Anna Bower for posting a New York Times story<\/a> that appears to undercut Halligan\u2019s case against James made national news earlier this week, along with her belated realization that she needed to say \u201coff the record\u201d first<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last night, those texts reappeared in a Motion to Enforce Rules Prohibiting the Government\u2019s Extrajudicial Disclosures<\/a> filed by James\u2019s lawyer, the ubiquitous Abbe Lowell along with local counsel Andrew Bosse. Calling the messages a \u201cstunning disclosure of internal government information,\u201d the motion notes that the exchange appears to violate FRCrP 6(e), 28 C.F.R. \u00a7 50.2, EDVA Local Criminal Rule 57.1, ABA Model Rule 3.8 laying out the Special Responsibilities of a Prosecutor, and the Justice Manual.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttorney General James is not at this time formally moving for relief pursuant to FRCrP 6(e),\u201d the lawyers coughed delicately in one footnote. In another they observe that auto-deleting messages violates federal records laws, and promise that \u201cAttorney General James will pursue this apparent violation of the law with the appropriate offices.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a helluva way to start the initial appearance! <\/p>\n

James requested that the court order the prosecution to knock off the extrajudicial disclosures, preserve all communications, and \u201cmaintain a log of all contact between any government attorney or agent on this case and any member of the news media or press concerning this case.\u201d They also noticed<\/a> their intent to move to disqualify \u201cpurported interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan\u201d based on her unlawful appointment.<\/p>\n

Halligan was already facing one such motion from former FBI director Jim Comey, which was referred to Senior Judge Cameron Currie of the District of South Carolina. Lowell suggests that, \u201cfor judicial economy, the two motions should likely be consolidated.\u201d So Halligan will only have to explain once<\/em> that, when the Constitution says the president has to get advice and consent of the Senate to appoint US Attorneys, it actually means he\u2019s entitled to make an unlimited number of interim appointments and not even bother to nominate someone for the job. <\/p>\n

On the plus side, she finally got an actual prosecutor to ride along with her on this madcap expedition, although she had to go all the way to Missouri to find one. As in the Comey prosecution, not a single lawyer in EDVA will get near this shitpile of a case. And so, on Wednesday \u2014 after<\/em> the Bower story dropped! \u2014 Roger A. Keller, an AUSA from the Eastern District of Missouri, entered his appearance. <\/p>\n

And meanwhile, ABC confirmed<\/a> the Times\u2019s reporting this morning. While Halligan groused that reports about James\u2019s great-niece living in the house without paying rent were incorrect, ABC says that \u201cprosecutors found no record of James collecting rent from her niece beyond $1,350 that James reported on her 2020 tax return, which was said to cover the cost of utilities.\u201d That would comport with James\u2019s 2020 financial disclosure<\/a> in which she claimed $1,000-5,000 in \u201cinvestment\u201d income, likely the utility bills paid by her niece.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After James pleaded not guilty, Judge Jamar Walker set a trial date of January 26. Welcome to the rocket docket, Roger Walker! Looks like there may be some turbulence ahead.<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The post Halligan\u2019s Signal Messages Enter The Courtroom Chat<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLindsey Halligan (Photo by Al Drago\/Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New York Attorney General Letitia James was arraigned this morning in Norfolk on charges of mortgage fraud. This should have been a triumphant day for Lindsey Halligan, the insurance lawyer turned US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. This is, after all, what she was hired to do. But we\u2019re guessing it wasn\u2019t as fun as she\u2019d hoped.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Darn you, Anna Bower! <\/p>\n

Halligan\u2019s Signal messages<\/a> hectoring Lawfare editor Anna Bower for posting a New York Times story<\/a> that appears to undercut Halligan\u2019s case against James made national news earlier this week, along with her belated realization that she needed to say \u201coff the record\u201d first<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last night, those texts reappeared in a Motion to Enforce Rules Prohibiting the Government\u2019s Extrajudicial Disclosures<\/a> filed by James\u2019s lawyer, the ubiquitous Abbe Lowell along with local counsel Andrew Bosse. Calling the messages a \u201cstunning disclosure of internal government information,\u201d the motion notes that the exchange appears to violate FRCrP 6(e), 28 C.F.R. \u00a7 50.2, EDVA Local Criminal Rule 57.1, ABA Model Rule 3.8 laying out the Special Responsibilities of a Prosecutor, and the Justice Manual.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttorney General James is not at this time formally moving for relief pursuant to FRCrP 6(e),\u201d the lawyers coughed delicately in one footnote. In another they observe that auto-deleting messages violates federal records laws, and promise that \u201cAttorney General James will pursue this apparent violation of the law with the appropriate offices.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a helluva way to start the initial appearance! <\/p>\n

James requested that the court order the prosecution to knock off the extrajudicial disclosures, preserve all communications, and \u201cmaintain a log of all contact between any government attorney or agent on this case and any member of the news media or press concerning this case.\u201d They also noticed<\/a> their intent to move to disqualify \u201cpurported interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan\u201d based on her unlawful appointment.<\/p>\n

Halligan was already facing one such motion from former FBI director Jim Comey, which was referred to Senior Judge Cameron Currie of the District of South Carolina. Lowell suggests that, \u201cfor judicial economy, the two motions should likely be consolidated.\u201d So Halligan will only have to explain once<\/em> that, when the Constitution says the president has to get advice and consent of the Senate to appoint US Attorneys, it actually means he\u2019s entitled to make an unlimited number of interim appointments and not even bother to nominate someone for the job. <\/p>\n

On the plus side, she finally got an actual prosecutor to ride along with her on this madcap expedition, although she had to go all the way to Missouri to find one. As in the Comey prosecution, not a single lawyer in EDVA will get near this shitpile of a case. And so, on Wednesday \u2014 after<\/em> the Bower story dropped! \u2014 Roger A. Keller, an AUSA from the Eastern District of Missouri, entered his appearance. <\/p>\n

And meanwhile, ABC confirmed<\/a> the Times\u2019s reporting this morning. While Halligan groused that reports about James\u2019s great-niece living in the house without paying rent were incorrect, ABC says that \u201cprosecutors found no record of James collecting rent from her niece beyond $1,350 that James reported on her 2020 tax return, which was said to cover the cost of utilities.\u201d That would comport with James\u2019s 2020 financial disclosure<\/a> in which she claimed $1,000-5,000 in \u201cinvestment\u201d income, likely the utility bills paid by her niece.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After James pleaded not guilty, Judge Jamar Walker set a trial date of January 26. Welcome to the rocket docket, Roger Walker! Looks like there may be some turbulence ahead.<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Attorney General Letitia James was arraigned this morning in Norfolk on charges of mortgage fraud. This should have been a triumphant day for Lindsey Halligan, the insurance lawyer turned US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. This is, after all, what she was hired to do. But we\u2019re guessing it wasn\u2019t as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":135789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-24-at-11.29.33-AM-1024x717-KyAL7S.png?fit=1024%2C717&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}