The judge said Lindsey Halligan’s appointment violated federal law.
A federal judge on Nov. 24 dismissed indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, holding that the prosecutor who brought the indictments was invalidly appointed.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie said that “all actions” flowing from the appointment of Lindsey Halligan, whom the Trump administration named as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, were “unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.”
Currie dismissed the indictments without prejudice, but the statute of limitations has already passed for Comey’s case. In a footnote, Currie indicated that the Justice Department couldn’t bring a similar indictment against him. She said that while valid indictments typically toll, or suspend, the statute of limitations, “there is no legitimate peg on which to hang such a judicial limitations-tolling result” with a void indictment.
The Justice Department had argued that even if Halligan’s appointment were invalid, the indictments should stand because they were approved by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Currie rejected that premise and described Bondi’s attempts to ratify Halligan’s actions were “ineffective.”
Currie’s decision focused on 28 U.S.C. Section 546, which allows interim attorneys to serve for 120 days, further providing that district courts “may appoint” a U.S. attorney to fill vacancies at the end of that timeframe if the Senate hasn’t already appointed a replacement.
During a hearing on Nov. 13, the Justice Department argued the law didn’t confine the attorney general to an initial 120 days for appointing prosecutors. Rather, it said, the law allowed for successive appointments of attorneys who would each have 120-day limits on their time in office.
Currie disagreed and said on Nov. 24 that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia had power to appoint a replacement for Erik Siebert, Halligan’s predecessor.
“In sum, the text, structure, and history of section 546 point to one conclusion: the Attorney General’s authority to appoint an interim U.S. Attorney lasts for a total of 120 days from the date she first invokes section 546 after the departure of a Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney,” she said.
“If the position remains vacant at the end of the 120-day period, the exclusive authority to make further interim appointments under the statute shifts to the district court, where it remains until the President’s nominee is confirmed by the Senate.”
“If the position remains vacant at the end of the 120-day period, the exclusive authority to make further interim appointments under the statute shifts to the district court, where it remains until the President’s nominee is confirmed by the Senate.”
By Sam Dorman
