Letitia James signals plan to challenge Lindsey Halligan’s appointment in mortgage fraud case

[Thiệu Ngô]

Letitia James Challenges Trump-Appointed Prosecutor Over Legality of Her Case

By Ella Lee

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) signaled Thursday that she intends to challenge the appointment of a prosecutor handpicked by President Trump to seek charges against his foes in a bid to throw out her mortgage fraud case.

In a two-page court filing, James’s attorneys notified the federal judge overseeing the case that they plan to formally ask him to dismiss the charges Friday on the basis that interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully installed.

“In the interest of efficiency and to avoid any unnecessary delay, particularly if this Court must designate this motion to an out-of-district judge, Attorney General James files the instant Notice to formally alert the Court,” the filing reads.

James’s motion comes after another Trump adversary, former FBI Director James Comey, moved to have his charges dismissed over Halligan’s appointment earlier this week.

Comey’s bid to dismiss his case was set Thursday for Nov. 13 oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie, an appointee of former President Clinton who sits on a federal court in South Carolina.

Currie was selected to hear the motion by the appellate court that oversees both her court and the Eastern District of Virginia, where James and Comey are charged.

James’s attorneys referenced Comey’s challenge and suggested that, for “judicial economy,” their two motions should likely be heard together. They noted that she still plans to file additional motions to dismiss.

A former White House aide, Halligan was tapped by Trump to take over the role after her predecessor expressed reservations about Comey’s case and ultimately resigned. She had no prior prosecuting experience.

James faces counts of bank fraud and false statements to a financial institution, stemming from allegations she misrepresented her plans for a Virginia home, allowing her to obtain favorable loan terms.

The New York attorney general’s first arraignment is set for Friday, where she is expected to enter a plea. She has denied any wrongdoing and described the charges as “baseless.”

James’s attorneys on Thursday also asked a judge to bar the Justice Department from disclosing investigative and case materials to journalists, in addition to preserving any conversations with the media, after Halligan’s messages with a reporter were made public.

Halligan reached out to Lawfare’s Anna Bower to criticize the reporter’s social media posts about James’s prosecution, which the interim U.S. attorney oversees, and appeared to reference grand jury material detailed in a New York Times report.

Bower published the Signal conversation after Halligan failed to indicate that their discussion, which included messages set to “disappear” after a certain amount of time, was off the record.

“Proactive intervention by this Court is necessary to protect Attorney General James’ constitutional rights and the integrity of this Court’s procedures,” James’s attorneys wrote.

Comey’s lawyers argued in his challenge to Halligan’s appointment that her signature on his two-count indictment, which alleges he falsely testified before Congress in 2020, makes it a “nullity” and the charges must be dismissed.

“The United States cannot charge, maintain, and prosecute a case through an official who has no entitlement to exercise governmental authority,” they wrote.

Halligan is not the first of Trump’s U.S. attorneys to face challenges to their appointments.

On Monday, the Justice Department defended Trump’s installation of his former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor before a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.

A district judge previously ruled Habba had unlawfully held the position since her interim term expired in July, though he put his decision on hold so the administration could appeal. The judges seemed skeptical of the administration’s maneuvering that kept her in the post.

“Would you concede that there are serious constitutional implications to your theory here, the government’s theory, which really is a complete circumvention, it seems, of the Appointments Clause?” asked Judge D. Brooks Smith, an appointee of former President George W. Bush.

Nevada acting U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah, another Trump loyalist, was disqualified from supervising several criminal cases after a judge found that her authority expired when her interim term ended, which the administration has appealed.

And a challenge to the appointment of Bill Essayli, Trump’s chief federal prosecutor in the district covering Los Angeles, is pending.