Lindsey Halligan, the US attorney overseeing the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey, once warned that the Department of Justice risked becoming a tool for political revenge. Today, Halligan is drawing criticism for leading one of the most politically charged prosecutions in decades.
Last week, Halligan brought charges against Comey for allegedly lying under oath to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. The grand jury indictment came less than a week after President Donald Trump publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political rivals — specifically naming Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
But Halligan’s own record and the circumstances around her appointment raise questions about the true motivations at play. The case revives a long-running feud between Trump and Comey, who as FBI director helped lead the investigation into Trump’s campaign ties to Russia before Trump fired him in May 2017.
A White House aide who previously worked on Trump’s legal team, Halligan has never been a prosecutor. But as a former member of Trump’s legal team, she has a long record of speaking out against the threat of politically motivated prosecutions.
CNN’s KFile reviewed dozens of Halligan’s media appearances, in which she blasted the justice system as “corrupt’” over its investigations into Trump for hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and likened probes into him to “election interference.”
In the interviews Halligan described what she said was a lack of transparency by the FBI after its August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, where agents discovered 33 boxes, some filled with classified documents, as “the first step to tyranny.” In its June 2023 indictment of Trump, the Department of Justice charged Trump with violating the Espionage Act.
Halligan warned that prosecuting political figures would “unravel” the legal system and accused New York City of running a “show trial” against Trump, referencing the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in which Trump was convicted in May 2024 on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records related to hush money payments.
“It’s up to the sitting president to ensure that our criminal system does not unravel into retaliatory or political prosecutions of former presidents and other government officials,” Halligan told Fox News in August 2022, referring to then-President Joe Biden after the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. “Just imagine what if it is now protocol for a new president of the United States to prosecute his or her predecessor.”
A Department of Justice spokesperson official told CNN, “No one is above the law. This Department of Justice will continue to follow the facts and hold those who abuse positions of power accountable.”
And a person familiar Halligan’s decision to charge Comey told CNN the case was not political and was based on facts and evidence, including new material that the person said previous prosecutors had not seen. The person added that Halligan would not have proceeded if the case lacked
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