Trump Lawyer Lindsey Halligan Has Had A Swift Career Downfall
Lindsey Halligan's time as the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia got off to a rocky and embarrassing start. She reportedly got lost in a courthouse and then denied knowing about a document that she had signed. And that may have been her best day on the job. While she started her legal career working in insurance law, Lindsey Halligan's connections to Donald Trump go back to her days in the Miss Colorado USA pageant. She joined Trump's legal team when a startling number of classified documents were found at Mar-a-Lago in 2022, and when Trump returned to the White House, Halligan came along.
In September 2025, Halligan replaced the previous attorney, Erik Siebert, who resigned after being pressured by Trump to investigate and prosecute Letitia James and James Comey. As if getting lost in the courthouse wasn't a poor enough start to her tenure, Halligan sent a series of texts to reporter Anna Bower in October, forgetting to say that these were off the record until after the conversation ended. Bower shared her experience and the texts on Lawfare.
Then, in November, almost two months to the day that she was sworn in to her position, Halligan not only had her cases against Letitia James and James Comey dismissed, but U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie also found Halligan's appointment to the position of U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to be illegal. Shockingly, the Trump administration is still trying to get Halligan confirmed by the Senate.
Lindsey Halligan is still acting like she has the job
Despite having her cases against Letitia James and James Comey thrown out, and being forced to vacate her position, Donald Trump is still standing with Lindsey Halligan. MS Now reported how Halligan turned in her confirmation questionnaire to the Senate Judiciary Committee in December 2025. And it appears that Halligan is still presenting herself as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
In January, U.S. District Judge David Novak took the unusual step of issuing an unrequested order asking why Halligan is still in her post, despite it being determined that her appointment to the position is illegal (via NBC News). Judge Novak's order acknowledges that Judge Currie's finding has been appealed, but that the order still stands and Halligan must "further explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement."
Halligan's actions have her competing with Alina Habba for the title of Donald Trump's worst lawyer, but it seems Habba is still in the lead, with some of Trump's former lawyers happily sharing their feelings on Habba. Still, even being one of Trump's disgraced lawyers can be lucrative: Alina Habba reportedly made millions working for Trump, despite losing his civil case.