Trump Lawyer Lindsey Halligan Was Put On Blast Over Bizarre Text Messages To A Reporter

Anyone who's been keeping up with the Trump administration knows who Lindsey Halligan is. The interim United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia has been the face of Donald Trump's political revenge tour, responsible for the indictments of both Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Halligan previously served as the president's personal attorney, and he's known for not exactly picking from the cream of the crop (all the times Alina Habba was called out for being Trump's worst lawyer serve as proof of this). As is befitting of a Trump attorney, Halligan is already caught in her own scandal. 

In October 2025, she texted the senior editor of Lawfare, Anna Bower, on Signal, chastising her for "reporting things that are simply not true" regarding the ongoing case against James. Bower reassured Halligan that she would be happy to make any necessary amendments to her reporting, and inquired as to what precisely she got wrong. Halligan, despite having been the one to initiate contact, refused to confirm what the supposed mistakes in her reporting were. She also told the Lawfare editor, "If you have any questions, before you report, feel free to reach out to me." 

Bower did just that, but she still received zero straight answers from the president's lawyer, who, after some radio silence, also casually informed Bower that their conversation was completely off the record. The Lawfare editor quickly clarified, "I'm sorry, but that's not how this works. You don't get to say that in retrospect." It was a truly bizarre conversation, which mostly consisted of Halligan tearing into Bower for being a shoddy reporter without backing up her claims with any facts, and it unsurprisingly drew widespread criticism after she published their text exchange.

Anna Bower published a bombshell op-ed on Lawfare about her text exchange with Lindsey Halligan, acknowledging how strange it had been for the attorney to reach out in the first place about a case she was actively prosecuting. As Bower noted, "Several of her messages contained language that touched on grand jury matters, even as she insisted that she could not reveal such information, which is protected from disclosure by prosecutors under federal law." The Lawfare editor wasn't the only one who put Halligan on blast for the text exchange either. Industry experts also expressed shock at the lawyer's blatant disregard for DOJ communication protocols. 

NYU law professor Stephen Gillers admitted to Newsweek that Halligan's conduct with Bower was deeply concerning, hinting at her inexperience as a prosecutor more generally too. "Seasoned prosecutors know this intuitively — or learn it early in the job — and stay far away from any risk of crossing those red lines," he opined. "Halligan's outreach [to Bower] suggests she either never absorbed those lessons or ignored them." MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace didn't mince words while discussing Halligan's Signal blunder on "Deadline: White House," questioning her intelligence and the attorney's understanding of her new job. 

"I don't know whether to deal with the legal issues or the stupidity first," she said (via MS Now). "But the stupidity is just unbelievable here." Wallace argued that Halligan should at least get a slap on the wrist for blatantly disregarding the rules, and criticized the Trump staffer's lack of understanding about how off the record conversations with journalists typically work. Don't look now, but if Halligan's reputation continues on this downward spiral, she'll join the list of former Trump lawyers who brutally turned their back on him.