President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly preparing to issue a formal indictment against former FBI director James Comey, likely accusing him of lying to Congress about the bureau’s investigation into alleged attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Comey, 64, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 30, 2020, to discuss the “Crossfire Hurricane” probe examining, ultimately inconclusively, whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russian operatives to secure his victory over Hillary Clinton.
Under the statute of limitations, the deadline to take issue with the ex-director’s remarks that day falls on Tuesday, the fifth anniversary of his appearance before the panel.
Should the administration choose to do so, the responsibility will fall to former beauty pageant contestant and insurance lawyer Lindsey Halligan, who was only sworn in as acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia last week.
Halligan, 36, replaced Erik Siebert, an experienced federal prosecutor who submitted his resignation on Friday, reportedly due to pressure from the administration to bring a mortgage fraud case against New York Attorney General Letitia James, despite investigators failing to find evidence of wrongdoing.
As revealed in a Truth Social post directed at Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday, which many believe was posted publicly in error, the president is growing impatient with the slow progress being made by the Justice Department in its pursuit of his political enemies.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump told Bondi. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Shortly after sending that message, the president posted another announcing Halligan’s ascent and saying of her: “She is extremely intelligent, fearless and, working with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, has the strength and determination to be absolutely OUTSTANDING in this new and very important role.”
Despite his confidence in Halligan, the gulf in experience between her and her predecessor is inescapable. Siebert, 46, has reportedly been listed as an attorney on 675 federal cases while she has worked on only three.
Halligan was born in Portland, Maine, but raised in Broomfield, Colorado, where she attended Catholic school before enrolling at Regis University in Denver, from which she earned a bachelor’s degree in politics and broadcast journalism and befriended the future Erika Kirk. She also participated in the Miss Colorado contest around this time, advancing to the semi-finals in 2009 and earning third runner-up in 2010.
After graduating from the University of Miami School of Law with a Juris Doctor in 2013, she went on to become a partner at one of the Fort Lauderdale offices of Cole, Scott & Kissane.
South Florida court records indicate that her role at CSK was primarily concerned with defending insurance companies sued by homeowners. She also represented “relatively small-time corporate plaintiffs with names like Water Dryout, Moisture Rid, and Water Restoration Guys” in minor claims disputes that were often settled without recourse to trial, according to Mother Jones.
The Telegraph reports that Halligan first met Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course in November 2021, at which she is said to have caught his eye by arriving in a suit, having come straight from work, leading to a friendly conversation about her career that duly led to her entering his phalanx of lawyers.
Halligan soon found herself defending Trump on national TV after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022. When the resulting classified documents case became a legal brawl, District Judge Aileen Cannon reportedly rejected two of her filings for failing to comply with local procedures, directing her back to the court’s website for instructions on best practice when submitting documents. A subsequent refiling was likewise rebuffed with the same advice.
Halligan has since made further appearances on conservative media on Trump’s behalf and relocated to Washington to serve as a senior associate staff secretary at the White House following his win in last November’s election.
Most recently, she has been tasked with restoring “truth and sanity to American history” by addressing the “overemphasis on slavery” at the Smithsonian Institution, an anti-woke program that critics have warned amounts to revisionism.
If Halligan lacks prosecutorial experience, her pageant background at least means she has the right look to suit Trump’s “central casting” aesthetic.
The president famously likes to surround himself with corporate-coded women like Alina Habba, Bondi, and Karoline Leavitt and tough-looking guys in the mold of Blanche or Steven Cheung as his supporting cast, helping to project his very traditional idea of masculine power.
