NY Attorney General Letitia James to appear in court after being indicted in mortgage fraud case

Lindsey Halligan, a fierce Trump ally, assumed the job of top prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia last month Within days, she pursued indictments against the former FBI Director James Comey and then James.

Halligan’s predecessor, Erik Siebert, was pushed out of the job amid political pressure to indict James, CNN reported.

Halligan, a former insurance attorney from Florida, served as one of Trump’s personal attorneys during the initial investigation into whether Trump was illegally keeping classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The president handpicked her to serve as interim US attorney in the Virginia district and see through the James and Comey prosecutions amid questions internally over whether there was evidence to indict either of them.

Halligan, who had no previous prosecutorial experience, was the only prosecutor to sign the two indictments against Trump’s perceived enemies.

Halligan faces new scrutiny this week after contacting a reporter – Lawfare’s Anna Bower – on the messaging platform Signal two days after securing the grand jury indictment against James about the case.

James attorneys filed a motion Thursday evening asking a federal judge to bar Halligan and other prosecutors from making public statements outside of court referencing Halligan’s recently revealed conversations with Bower. The prosecutor offered her thoughts on the “credibility and general strength of the evidence presented to the grand jury.”

Those comments – which Bower reported earlier this week – represented “a stunning disclosure of internal government information,” attorneys for James said in the filing Thursday.

James’ defense team also wants the judge to require prosecutors to keep a list of all contacts they have with members of the media.