Attorney Lindsey Halligan on Fox News on August 16, 2022

In an article for MSNBC published Sunday, legal analyst Barbara McQuade argued that President Donald Trump tapped Lindsey Halligan to carry out the indictment of former FBI director James Comey precisely because Halligan is deeply loyal and beholden to him, not because she brings experience or prosecutorial judgment.

McQuade noted that Trump removed the prior interim U.S. attorney, Erik Siebert, after Siebert declined to bring politically motivated indictments — and replaced him with Halligan, whom Trump described to Attorney General Pam Bondi as “a really good lawyer, and likes you, a lot.”

McQuade emphasized that Halligan has no criminal‑prosecution background and had defended Trump in private practice, yet she was installed in an office whose most sensitive cases require heavy discretion. According to McQuade, Trump's aim was to ensure that the person deciding whether to indict Comey would be “easier to control.”

The analyst noted that Trump made clear he would not tolerate a U.S. attorney who refused to go along with his retribution agenda, calling Siebert “a Woke RINO, who was never going to do his job.”

Trump mentioned Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) in his post.

"In Trump's mind, these three public officials were 'guilty as hell' — no trial required. Of what crime, he didn't say," she wrote.

McQuade framed this move as fitting a pattern she associates with what historian Ruth Ben‑Ghiat calls “engineered incompetence” — appointing underqualified people so they remain dependent on the leader.

"According to Ben-Ghiat, when individuals are appointed to high office 'without the credentials one would normally expect, they become dependent on and indebted to the leader.' The appointee is so grateful for their position that they feel beholden to the leader, and eager to repay his generosity. In exchange, the leader gets an appointee who is easier to control," the article noted.

McQuade argued that in a U.S. attorney’s office, the most critical power is choosing whether to bring charges in complex and politically fraught matters, and that Siebert was more suited to withhold weak cases.

She contended that the thin public record against Comey suggests the evidence is weak, and that Siebert likely judged it insufficient. In her view, Halligan was installed to override that kind of independent prosecutorial judgment.

"Securing an indictment is only the first step — now she has to mount a case and convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Comey said in a video statement that he has full faith that the justice system will reaffirm its independence and prove his innocence. If that happens, it might be the only silver lining of this whole mess," McQuade wrote.