Insiders at the Department of Justice described President Donald Trump's hand-picked prosecutor in a high-profile case as a "lamb sent to slaughter," according to a new report.
The Department of Justice and the FBI have denied Lindsey Halligan's requests for additional resources to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, CNN reported Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Last week, a grand jury returned an indictment against Comey for two counts of lying to Congress and obstruction of justice. Comey has denied all charges against him.
Halligan, who is Trump's former personal defense attorney, was recently appointed to lead the Eastern District of Virginia, which will handle Comey's prosecution. However, lawyers in the department have declined to sign on to the case, saying the evidence against Comey is too weak, according to CNN.
“Lindsey was set up to fail,” one of the sources familiar with the discussions told CNN. “She was the lamb sent to slaughter.”
CNN also reported, citing an anonymous source, that "Justice officials told [Halligan] that the deputy attorney general’s office didn’t have lawyers to help her, and that it was against federal rules of criminal procedure for one of the attorneys from Justice headquarters to be in the grand jury room."
Halligan was selected to lead the Eastern District after the Trump administration pressured former U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert, another Trump appointee, to resign. Media reports indicate Siebert refused to prosecute Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.