Virginia Court Seeks US Attorney to Succeed Trump’s Halligan (1)

A federal court in Virginia is requesting applicants to serve as the district’s top interim prosecutor just as a federal judge ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s pick, Lindsey Halligan, is barred from using the US attorney title before the court.

US District Judge David Novak ordered Halligan to stop “representing herself as the United States Attorney in any pleading or otherwise before this Court until such time as she may lawfully hold the office either by Senate confirmation or appointment by this Court.”

The bar, which takes effect Wednesday, comes after Novak ordered Halligan earlier this month to justify continuing to use US attorney title after another federal judge ruled late last year that she was unlawfully appointed to her role.

Earlier Tuesday, Chief US District Judge Hannah Lauck issued an order stating the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has found that Halligan, a former personal lawyer for Trump, may not serve as interim US attorney following the earlier appointment of another interim pick, or beyond Halligan’s 120-day term, which expires Tuesday.

Lauck said the court is using its statutory authority “to appoint an Interim United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia until the position is filled by a Senate confirmed person” and “is soliciting expressions of interest in serving in that position.”

DOJ didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The order comes as the Justice Department has committed to standing by Trump’s handpicked US attorney. The department earlier this month hit back at Novak questioning why Halligan continued to appear as the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after the November ruling saying Halligan was invalidly serving in the rule.

DOJ said in a Jan. 13 filing that Novak’s “threat to use attorney discipline to cudgel the executive branch into conforming its legal position in all criminal prosecutions to the views of a single district judge is a gross abuse of power and an affront to the separation of powers.”

Novak responded to the criticism in his Tuesday order, saying DOJ’s response “contains a level of vitriol more appropriate for a cable news talk show and falls far beneath the level of advocacy expected from litigants in this Court, particularly the Department of Justice.”

The Eastern District of Virginia’s webpage continues to list Halligan as the office’s US attorney as of Tuesday.

The vacancy announcement the court posted Tuesday asks interested parties to complete and submit to the court a questionnaire, along with a cover letter and resume, by Feb. 10.

Lauck’s approach mirrors that of Delaware’s chief federal judge, Colm Connolly, who solicited applications in September for Delaware’s US attorney as former Delaware GOP party chair Julianne Murray was serving her 120-day interim term. Connolly subsequently declined to appoint Murray to continue serving in the role after her term expired.

US District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled in November that Halligan was unlawfully appointed after DOJ already appointed her predecessor, Erik Siebert, to serve a 120-day interim term upon the vacancy of the US attorney post at the start of Trump’s second term.

The November ruling also tossed indictments Halligan secured against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). The department has appealed that ruling.

The case overseen by Novak is USA v. Jefferson, E.D. Va., No. 3:25-cr-00160, 1/20/26.