Trump Lawyer Lindsey Halligan's New Job Got Off To A Rocky & Embarrassing Start

Donald Trump might have a new worst lawyer on his hands with Lindsey Halligan. Previously, Alina Habba had the dubious distinction of being Trump's worst lawyer. Halligan is serving as the interim United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Before Trump's second inauguration, she was on his personal legal team, helping him with the case concerning the alleged improper storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. She'd previously worked as an insurance lawyer, and she has no prosecutorial experience. Halligan's first major case as an interim U.S. attorney is the prosecution of former FBI director James Comey. Things aren't going so well for Halligan in the case so far, with a series of unfortunate events and unforced errors piling up one after the other.

To start with, she reportedly got lost as she went to the courthouse to present a case to the grand jury to get an indictment against Comey (one of Trump's political enemies whom he asked U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to focus on charging). She also didn't seem to know where to stand in relation to the judge once she got in.

And then, the documents that she presented caused some confusion. Judge Lindsey Vaala, who was presiding, asked why there were two different indictments for the same case. Vaala told Halligan (via CBS News): "So this has never happened before. I've been handed two documents that are in the Mr. Comey case that are inconsistent with one another." Halligan repeatedly insisted that she knew nothing about the extra document, to which Vaala replied, "It has your signature on it." Halligan's answer to getting called out? "Okay. Well."

Then there's the issue of Lindsey Halligan's spelling mistake in the press release about the indictment against James Comey. In the statement put out on the website for the U.S. United States Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, she wrote, "The balance of power is a bedrock principal of our democracy." It has since been corrected online to "principle," but thanks to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, you can still see the original version.

The words may sound alike, but they have different meanings, and "principal" doesn't make sense within the sentence. It's a relatively simple mistake, but when it's added to the list of other awkward moments, it's not shaping up for a great beginning for Halligan. And social media, being what it is, definitely noticed the spelling slip and started calling Halligan out for it.

One critic on X posted, "The unmitigated mediocrity that has been on display the last eight months has been nothing short of astounding." Another person pointed out on X: "Most modern spell/grammar checking would catch this. Incredibly lazy and arguably ignorant." Another person joked, "A Bedrock Principal oversaw the school where Fred and Wilma Flintstone's kids went."

Lindsey Halligan did get grand jury approval on an indictment of two counts against Comey for "making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding," via NBC News. The incident in question is from a 2020 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when Comey told Senator Ted Cruz he didn't give the go ahead to leak details about an FBI investigation of the Clinton Foundation or the Trump/Russia investigation. Comey has maintained his innocence. Halligan had been advised by federal prosecutors not to pursue a case against Comey, as there was not enough evidence, and one of Trump's former lawyers put Trump on blast for this move against Comey. How the case proceeds from here will be interesting to see, especially given Halligan's inauspicious start.

Halligan replaced Erik Siebert, who left the position with the Virginia U.S. attorney's office after he didn't pursue a case against New York Attorney General Letitia James as Trump wanted him to. Siebert said that he resigned, while Trump said that he fired Siebert. In a Truth Social post about Halligan's appointment, Trump referred to her as "a tough, smart, and loyal attorney." We've definitely seen loyalty from Halligan as she pursued the charges; we may still be waiting to see the other two qualities in action.

Earlier in Trump's second term, Halligan, then a White House senior associate staff secretary, helped with Trump's push to have items that she and Trump deemed offensive removed from the Smithsonian. She was also a two-time Miss Colorado USA competitor; Trump owned the Miss USA pageant for nearly two decades.