Thursday’s indictment of the former F.B.I. director James Comey bore a single, telling signature: that of Lindsey Halligan, installed by President Donald Trump just three days earlier to serve as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Halligan is an insurance lawyer turned Trump attorney and White House aide; in March, Trump appointed her to remove “improper ideology” from the Smithsonian. She has scant experience in federal courts and none as a prosecutor. Her predecessor in the position, a seasoned prosecutor nominated by Trump, was forced out last Friday, according to numerous news reports, after balking at demands to concoct cases against Comey, in addition to New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, and others.
The Lede
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