Florida Bar Denies Investigating Lindsey Halligan as Trump Lawyer Under Siege After Rocky Prosecutions of James, Comey

The admission by the Florida State Bar that it “erroneously” stated that an ethics investigation was underway against President Trump’s handpicked federal prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, does little to assuage the growing professional peril — from the largely left-leaning legal establishment — faced by lawyers who serve the 47th president.The Sunshine State bar on Friday said in a statement that “There is no such pending Bar investigation of Lindsay Halligan.” That reversed a statement made on Thursday that there was an “investigation pending” against Ms. Halligan. The lawyers’ guild acknowledges, though, that it “received a complaint against Lindsay Halligan and, consistent with standard practice, the Bar is monitoring the ongoing legal proceedings.”Ms. Halligan — a Florida attorney on Mr. Trump’s defense team in the Mar-a-Lago case who followed him to Washington in 2025 — departed her post as acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in January after a federal district judge ruled that she was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi. State bar associations, like the national lawyers guild, often lean left. As does the group challenging Ms. Halligan, Campaign for Accountability. Prior to Ms. Halligan’s disqualification she brought criminal cases against two of Mr. Trump’s highest-profile critics — New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, and the former FBI director, James Comey. Ms James — whose office sought to shut down the Trump Organization —was charged with bank fraud, and Mr. Comey with lying to Congress. When Ms. Halligan was disqualified, both of those cases were dismissed. The DOJ is appealing that ruling to the Fourth United States Appeals Circuit.The complaint sent to the Florida Bar last month by Campaign for Accountability accuses Ms. Halligan of “continuing to engage in conduct barred by federal law and the Constitution.” The complaint also raises the possibility that Ms. Halligan might have misrepresented the law to the grand jury that handed up charges against Mr. Comey. That prospect was first mooted by the magistrate judge that was overseeing the case.This is not the first time that the specter of disciplinary proceedings has been raised against Ms. Halligan, who, upon first arriving at Washington last year, was tasked with arresting the ideological drift of the Smithsonian museums. After she was disqualified by Judge Cameron McGown Currie, an appointee of President Clinton, she was reprimanded by a second judge, David Novak, an appointee of Mr. Trump’s.Judge Novak’s ire was raised by Ms. Halligan’s persistence in representing herself as the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District even after her disqualification. Judge Novak wrote that such a representation could amount to “a false or misleading statement” and accused her of a “charade” and of “masquerading” in a position to which she was not entitled. The judge threatened sanctions not only against Ms. Halligan but also Ms. Bondi.Judge Novak explained that he demurred from imposing penalties because “Ms. Halligan lacks the prosecutorial experience that has long been the norm for those nominated to the position of United States Attorney in this District.” The DOJ maintained that Ms. Halligan was the victim of an “inquisition” and Ms. Bondi has lamented her departure from government as a “significant loss for the Department of Justice and the communities she served.”The DOJ, sensing the growing danger to its attorneys from state bar associations, on Thursday filed a notice in the Federal Register announcing its intention to intervene in any state bar disciplinary proceedings against federal lawyers. The DOJ wants priority in any such investigations, and demands that the state groups “suspend any parallel investigations until the completion of the department’s review.” The DOJ vows it will go to court to enforce that priority.While a state bar can investigate an attorney who practices under its jurisdiction, its recommendations are in turn submitted to a grievance committee, which determines if there is probable cause — meaning more likely than not — to conclude that a lawyer has violated professional standards. If the grievance committee determines that probable cause exists, they pass on the file to state courts, who possess the power to strip a lawyer’s license. Ms. Halligan is far from the first lawyer in Mr. Trump’s orbit who has faced the possibility of professional excommunication. The scholar John Eastman, who advised Mr. Trump in the wake of the 2020 election, has been disbarred in California. A judge there found that he “used his skills to push a false narrative in the courtroom, in the White House, and in the media. That false narrative resulted in the undermining of our country’s electoral process, reduced faith in election professionals, and lessened respect for the courts.”In June another adviser to Mr. Trump, Kenneth Chesebro, lost the right to practice law in New York, also for his conduct in the wake of the 2020 election. A judicial panel in the Empire State wrote that Mr. Chesebro’s conduct “strikes at the heart of the administration of justice and undercuts the very notion of our constitutional democracy that he, as an attorney, swore an oath to uphold.” Messrs. Chesebro and Eastman were both criminally charged in Georgia by the district attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis. That case was dismissed, though, following disclosures of a secret romance between Ms. Willis and her handpicked prosecutor. Mr. Chesebro pleaded “guilty” in that case, though Mr. Eastman insisted on his innocence. Another ally of the president, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has also been disbarred in both New York and the District of Columbia. He was also charged by Ms. Willis, and also faced a crippling civil lawsuit from a mother-daughter duo of election workers who he had accused of fraud. An anonymous donor eventually paid the large judgment. A New York court found that “there is indisputable evidence that Giuliani, in his capacity as Donald Trump’s attorney, made false and misleading statements to the public, as well as to the courts.”

Florida Bar Denies Investigating Lindsey Halligan as Trump Lawyer Under Siege After Rocky Prosecutions of James, Comey

Florida Bar Denies Investigating Lindsey Halligan as Trump Lawyer Under Siege After Rocky Prosecutions of James, Comey

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