Lindsey Halligan has gone from a relative unknown to a figure in the national spotlight in a matter of days, as she serves as the top prosecutor in the case against former FBI Director James Comey.
Halligan previously served as Trump’s personal lawyer and had been working as a White House official until just last week, when she was tapped as the interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Now, Halligan will face intense scrutiny as she leads the case against Comey, who was indicted Thursday on two counts.
Here’s what to know about Halligan.
Former Trump personal lawyer turned U.S. attorney
An insurance lawyer, Halligan was brought into Trump’s orbit when she joined his legal team in 2022.
The attorney was part of the legal proceedings in Florida over Trump’s handling of classified documents in a case brought by then-special counsel Jack Smith. Halligan also worked on Trump’s legal team on various other matters.
Trump announced Saturday he was nominating Halligan to serve as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after the ouster of Erik Siebert from the role.
Siebert departed after he reportedly told top Justice Department officials there was not sufficient evidence to bring charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James on mortgage fraud allegations. He also reportedly raised concerns about a potential prosecution of Comey.
“Lindsey is a tough, smart, and loyal attorney, who has worked with me for a long time, including in the winning fight against the Weaponization of our Justice System by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats, which she witnessed firsthand when she stood up for my rights during the Unconstitutional and UnAmerican raid on my home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in announcing Halligan’s nomination.
Oversaw White House’s Smithsonian review
Since January, Halligan had worked as a senior aide in the White House under the staff secretary. She was among the officials who joined Trump when he attended the U.S. Open men’s tennis final earlier this month.
Her most notable assignment came when she was tasked with leading a White House review of Smithsonian museum exhibits to ensure “alignment” with Trump’s executive orders.
Halligan signed off on a letter instructing eight of the Smithsonian’s museums — including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of the American Indian, among others — to replace exhibits that include “divisive or ideologically driven” material with “unifying, historically accurate” content, according to the news outlet.
Halligan took to the airwaves to defend the administration’s work amid backlash from critics who argued the White House was erasing history, particularly after Trump questioned why there was so much emphasis on the country’s slavery.
“The fact our country was involved in slavery is awful — no one thinks otherwise,” Halligan said in an August interview with Fox News. “But what I saw when I was going through the museum, personally, was an overemphasis on slavery, and I think there should be more of an overemphasis on how far we’ve come since slavery.”
Lacks prosecution experience
While Halligan is a Trump loyalist, she lacks experience prosecuting federal cases, something that has been highlighted in the wake of the Comey indictment.
The New York Times reported that Halligan personally presented the case against Comey to the grand jury, an unusual move for someone in her role. Halligan had sought a third charge against Comey, but the grand jury only indicted the former FBI director on two counts.
It was Halligan who signed the indictment in the case, not other career prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office, further underscoring how there had been skepticism about bringing charges against Comey.
Comey is set to be arraigned Oct. 9 in federal court in Alexandria, Va. His case will be overseen by U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, an appointee of former President Biden.
