{"id":141181,"date":"2026-01-07T14:43:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/07\/judge-demands-fake-u-s-attorney-explain-why-shes-still-pretending-to-be-u-s-attorney\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:43:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:43:40","slug":"judge-demands-fake-u-s-attorney-explain-why-shes-still-pretending-to-be-u-s-attorney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/07\/judge-demands-fake-u-s-attorney-explain-why-shes-still-pretending-to-be-u-s-attorney\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Demands Fake U.S. Attorney Explain Why She\u2019s Still Pretending To Be U.S. Attorney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lindsey Halligan is an insurance lawyer cosplaying as the U.S. Attorney for\u00a0the Eastern District of Virginia. Because she is famously *not* the actual U.S. Attorney<\/a> for the district. Though the Trump administration attempted to install her<\/a> in the job, Judge Cameron Currie ruled that 28 USC \u00a7 546 allows the president to make only one interim appointment as U.S. Attorney in any given federal district, after which the position may only be filled by a Senate-confirmed nominee or a judicially installed placeholder. (Trump used up that appointment on Halligan\u2019s predecessor Erik Seibert who was pushed out of the role <\/a>for failing to act like a trained seal and prosecute Donald Trump\u2019s political enemies.)<\/p>\n

So, um, why is Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s U.S. Attorney still out there signing indictments?\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Judge David Novak wants to know, writing in a recent order, \u201cthe Court hereby DIRECTS Ms. Halligan to file, within seven (7) days of the issuance of this Order, a pleading explaining the basis for Ms. Halligan\u2019s identification of herself as the United States Attorney, notwithstanding Judge Currie\u2019s contrary ruling. She shall also set forth the reasons why this Court should not strike Ms. Halligan\u2019s identification of herself as United States Attorney from the indictment in this matter. Ms. Halligan shall further explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

An attorney with any shred of respect for the rule of law would be committing professional seppuku after reading those words, yet, somehow I doubt that\u2019s Halligan\u2019s takeaway. And she now has a week to come up with an explanation that somehow reconciles \u201cJudge Currie ruled I am not the U.S. Attorney\u201d<\/em> with \u201cI keep calling myself the U.S. Attorney anyway.\u201d<\/em> That\u2019s\u2026 quite the needle to thread.<\/p>\n

Judge Novak is forcing a reality check on Halligan\u2019s imagined authority, one that\u2019s desperately needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read the full order below.<\/p>\n

gov.uscourts.vaed.586310.16.0<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Judge Demands Fake U.S. Attorney Explain Why She\u2019s Still Pretending To Be U.S. Attorney<\/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

Lindsey Halligan is an insurance lawyer cosplaying as the U.S. Attorney for\u00a0the Eastern District of Virginia. Because she is famously *not* the actual U.S. Attorney<\/a> for the district. Though the Trump administration attempted to install her<\/a> in the job, Judge Cameron Currie ruled that 28 USC \u00a7 546 allows the president to make only one interim appointment as U.S. Attorney in any given federal district, after which the position may only be filled by a Senate-confirmed nominee or a judicially installed placeholder. (Trump used up that appointment on Halligan\u2019s predecessor Erik Seibert who was pushed out of the role <\/a>for failing to act like a trained seal and prosecute Donald Trump\u2019s political enemies.)<\/p>\n

So, um, why is Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s U.S. Attorney still out there signing indictments?\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Judge David Novak wants to know, writing in a recent order, \u201cthe Court hereby DIRECTS Ms. Halligan to file, within seven (7) days of the issuance of this Order, a pleading explaining the basis for Ms. Halligan\u2019s identification of herself as the United States Attorney, notwithstanding Judge Currie\u2019s contrary ruling. She shall also set forth the reasons why this Court should not strike Ms. Halligan\u2019s identification of herself as United States Attorney from the indictment in this matter. Ms. Halligan shall further explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

An attorney with any shred of respect for the rule of law would be committing professional seppuku after reading those words, yet, somehow I doubt that\u2019s Halligan\u2019s takeaway. And she now has a week to come up with an explanation that somehow reconciles \u201cJudge Currie ruled I am not the U.S. Attorney\u201d<\/em> with \u201cI keep calling myself the U.S. Attorney anyway.\u201d<\/em> That\u2019s\u2026 quite the needle to thread.<\/p>\n

Judge Novak is forcing a reality check on Halligan\u2019s imagined authority, one that\u2019s desperately needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read the full order below.<\/p>\n

gov.uscourts.vaed.586310.16.0<\/a>Download<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lindsey Halligan is an insurance lawyer cosplaying as the U.S. Attorney for\u00a0the Eastern District of Virginia. Because she is famously *not* the actual U.S. Attorney for the district. Though the Trump administration attempted to install her in the job, Judge Cameron Currie ruled that 28 USC \u00a7 546 allows the president to make only one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141167,"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-141181","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\/2026\/01\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-NLaBzu.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141181","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=141181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}