{"id":139383,"date":"2025-12-19T10:58:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T18:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/19\/botched-no-bill-for-tish-james-reveals-halligans-case-is-bullshit\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T10:58:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T18:58:33","slug":"botched-no-bill-for-tish-james-reveals-halligans-case-is-bullshit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/19\/botched-no-bill-for-tish-james-reveals-halligans-case-is-bullshit\/","title":{"rendered":"Botched No Bill For Tish James Reveals Halligan\u2019s Case Is Bullshit"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, Politico<\/a> was first to report that cosplay US Attorney Lindsey Halligan got no-billed again<\/em><\/a> in her pursuit of Letitia James. <\/p>\n

Since Judge Cameron Currie dismissed<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em>. It was not until the 12th that the government moved to seal<\/a> the failed indictment. By then it had already been reported by multiple news outlets, and so Magistrate Judge William Porter rejected<\/a> the request. <\/p>\n

Hilariously, the government argued that the proceedings must be sealed to further the public policy goal of protecting \u201cthe individual accused of a crime from the expense of standing trial where there was no probability of guilt.\u201d Judge Porter noted an \u201cimportant corollary\u201d is the public interest in vindicating the reputation of a person previously indicted on bogus charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court will not speculate why the grand jury disclosed the no bill in open court,\u201d he wrote, but added that \u201cThe grand jury\u2019s decision to make this no bill public serves the interest of transparency when an individual has already suffered the stigma of public criminal charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the jury\u2019s thinking, putting the no bill<\/a> on the public docket reveals the evolution of the government\u2019s position. The first time around, Halligan presented the case herself and secured an indictment<\/a> 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 \u201cthousands\u201d of dollars in rental income. Halligan, who is still presenting herself as a US Attorney, even texted reporter Anna Bower of Lawfare<\/a> to insist that the New York Times<\/a> report that James\u2019s niece had always lived there and failed to pay rent was wrong.<\/p>\n

Now the government has changed its tune. This time they say James\u2019s crime was telling the mortgage company that she was buying the property as a second home when in fact she \u201cintended 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.\u201d The theory is that James got a lower interest rate than she would have if she\u2019d 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 \u201crent\u201d is the government\u2019s claim that James declared the property as a rental on her federal income taxes and said she occupied the property zero nights.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s niece testified to a grand jury in Norfolk that she never paid rent, as reported by the Times<\/em>. If so, it\u2019s not a strategy Keller was willing to repeat.<\/p>\n

But Halligan may have to enter the arena again if she hopes to secure an indictment of Trump\u2019s enemies. CNN<\/a> reports that on Wednesday, AUSA Keller was back in Missouri, where he told a judge that he\u2019d \u201cjust recently returned from a six-week detail on the government\u2019s behalf in Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there are to be more no bills, it won\u2019t be his name on \u2019em.<\/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<\/p>\n

The post Botched No Bill For Tish James Reveals Halligan\u2019s Case Is Bullshit<\/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

On Wednesday, Politico<\/a> was first to report that cosplay US Attorney Lindsey Halligan got no-billed again<\/em><\/a> in her pursuit of Letitia James. <\/p>\n

Since Judge Cameron Currie dismissed<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em>. It was not until the 12th that the government moved to seal<\/a> the failed indictment. By then it had already been reported by multiple news outlets, and so Magistrate Judge William Porter rejected<\/a> the request. <\/p>\n

Hilariously, the government argued that the proceedings must be sealed to further the public policy goal of protecting \u201cthe individual accused of a crime from the expense of standing trial where there was no probability of guilt.\u201d Judge Porter noted an \u201cimportant corollary\u201d is the public interest in vindicating the reputation of a person previously indicted on bogus charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court will not speculate why the grand jury disclosed the no bill in open court,\u201d he wrote, but added that \u201cThe grand jury\u2019s decision to make this no bill public serves the interest of transparency when an individual has already suffered the stigma of public criminal charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the jury\u2019s thinking, putting the no bill<\/a> on the public docket reveals the evolution of the government\u2019s position. The first time around, Halligan presented the case herself and secured an indictment<\/a> 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 \u201cthousands\u201d of dollars in rental income. Halligan, who is still presenting herself as a US Attorney, even texted reporter Anna Bower of Lawfare<\/a> to insist that the New York Times<\/a> report that James\u2019s niece had always lived there and failed to pay rent was wrong.<\/p>\n

Now the government has changed its tune. This time they say James\u2019s crime was telling the mortgage company that she was buying the property as a second home when in fact she \u201cintended 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.\u201d The theory is that James got a lower interest rate than she would have if she\u2019d 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 \u201crent\u201d is the government\u2019s claim that James declared the property as a rental on her federal income taxes and said she occupied the property zero nights.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s niece testified to a grand jury in Norfolk that she never paid rent, as reported by the Times<\/em>. If so, it\u2019s not a strategy Keller was willing to repeat.<\/p>\n

But Halligan may have to enter the arena again if she hopes to secure an indictment of Trump\u2019s enemies. CNN<\/a> reports that on Wednesday, AUSA Keller was back in Missouri, where he told a judge that he\u2019d \u201cjust recently returned from a six-week detail on the government\u2019s behalf in Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there are to be more no bills, it won\u2019t be his name on \u2019em.<\/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":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":139384,"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-139383","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\/12\/lindsey-halligan-GettyImages-2237057834-vmTxt5.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139383","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=139383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}