Halligan’s No. 2 Resigned Past DOJ Role After Staff Complaints

Chief federal prosecutor Lindsey Halligan’s new deputy—and potential successor—resigned from his prior senior Justice Department role amid complaints about his rigid management style, according to four lawyers with knowledge of the situation.

As Halligan’s first assistant, Robert McBride, 64, now assumes an influential role in the high-profile Eastern Virginia US attorney’s office under scrutiny for prosecuting President Donald Trump’s political enemies. Halligan’s status remains in doubt after a federal judge ruled she was improperly appointed, leaving McBride next in line to replace her.

McBride, 64, stepped down in 2010 as criminal chief in the Eastern District of Kentucky at the recommendation of an external DOJ evaluation team that interviewed multiple employees, the four attorneys said.

Through a DOJ official, McBride declined to comment. The official said McBride left voluntarily, in part to avoid a 90-mile commute following a health episode.

The longtime Navy lawyer and Kentucky federal prosecutor was known for focusing on staff timeliness and office attire. He once scolded a prosecutor for not wearing a tie on his first day back from bereavement leave following his infant son’s death, added three of the lawyers, some of whom spoke anonymously to avoid retaliation.

McBride remained a prosecutor in the district for eight more years, supervising a much smaller team of attorneys for part of that time.

While allies say McBride’s no-nonsense approach could bring needed structure to a workplace in flux, former Kentucky colleagues and other lawyers say he could further destabilize an office where multiple senior leaders have been fired.

The negative evaluation of McBride by the DOJ team raises concerns “as to whether he is the right person at this particular time,” said Mark Yancey, the former head of DOJ’s training academy for prosecutors, who doesn’t know McBride.

“Maybe they need a really strong leader like that with a military background, who’s self assured, to help put people at ease,” Yancey said. “Or maybe they need a softer touch at this point.”

As a general practice under what are routine examinations of all US attorney’s offices, only “significant morale issues” involving “a very high percentage” of employees would prompt reviewers to call for a leader’s demotion, said Yancey, who was also a senior official in the DOJ headquarters division that examines US attorney’s offices.

In McBride’s case, James Zerhusen, who was the Lexington, Ky.-based US attorney at the time, told Bloomberg Law it was a “grossly unfair” process based on “very petty” staff concerns.

The current DOJ official, speaking anonymously to discuss personnel matters, said McBride wasn’t aware that the report suggested he should resign.

Halligan Ruling

The Nov. 24 district court ruling that Halligan was illegally appointed—which was the basis for dismissing Halligan’s indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D)—caused confusion for Eastern Virginia prosecutors. They’ve been directed to keep her name on court filings while adding McBride.

Other judges have since questioned Halligan’s continued presence on filings and the Trump administration hasn’t appealed, leaving ambiguous whether McBride may need to take over. Another Trump pick, Alina Habba, stepped down Dec. 8 as chief prosecutor in New Jersey after courts ruled against her staying on.

Halligan, a former insurance lawyer and Trump personal attorney, has never been a prosecutor, whereas even McBride’s detractors said he’s a competent trial attorney with 15 years’ experience as an assistant US attorney.

He’s also among several out-of-state prosecutors transferred to the Virginia district as veterans were fired or demoted. Some of those who departed had resisted advancing what they viewed as thin cases against Comey and James, said multiple attorneys familiar with the culture.

“If he’s coming in just to impose, just to whip the office into shape—in a lot of ways, those of us there would say that it was already in shape,” said James P. Gillis, a longtime Eastern Virginia prosecutor who retired in 2022.

‘Out of Uniform’

Since her September move from the White House, where she was a special assistant to the president, Halligan has been escorted around the Alexandria, Va., office by a security detail and shown little interest engaging with staff, said several individuals.

McBride’s precise role remains unclear, but first assistants typically manage day-to-day operations and personnel matters.

As a senior supervisor in Kentucky, McBride had a reputation for a military bearing reflecting nearly two decades as an Army National Guard sergeant and manager in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

Pat Molloy, a Jimmy Carter-nominated US attorney in Eastern Kentucky who stayed on for decades as a line prosecutor, recalled getting admonished for how he dressed during McBride’s tenure.

Molloy had worn blue jeans to approach the son of a crooked small-town mayor, eventually flipping him into cooperating against his father. Molloy brought the teenager into the US attorney’s office without changing outfits, only to catch McBride’s attention.

The next day, McBride entered Molloy’s office, closed the door, and “proceeded to chew me out for being out of uniform,” Molloy said, referring to McBride’s dress code. “He never asked me, ‘Why were you there? Did you accomplish anything?’”

Zerhusen, who praised McBride’s dedication and leadership skills, said the DOJ review “affected Bob personally” so he decided to take a non-managerial demotion in his home branch in Northern Kentucky.

McConnell’s Blessing

McBride left DOJ in 2018 to enter private practice.

When Trump was re-elected, McBride made his interest in returning to Lexington as US attorney widely known, said multiple Kentucky lawyers. He secured endorsements from Kentucky’s two Republican senators, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, two people briefed on the matter said.

But the Trump administration, which has been crosswise with both senators, hasn’t prioritized appointing anyone as Eastern Kentucky’s top prosecutor.

That left McBride available for the Virginia district that’s been a much greater focal point for this White House.

“If he’s a purely spit and polished guy” then “it could have a further destabilizing effect,” but depending on his approach, he’s also capable of improving the office’s reputation after judges have criticized Halligan’s lawyering, Gillis said.

“For the one thing, we wouldn’t be a laughingstock anymore,” Gillis added, “because we would have somebody with some gravitas.”