Updating reporting on newly-appointed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan obtaining a grand jury indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian revealed on Friday morning that her presentation did not go smoothly.
Halligan, who specialized in real estate litigation in Florida before becoming one of Donald Trump’s personal lawyers, has never acted as a prosecutor in a criminal case and is under scrutiny after she was chosen by Attorney General Pam Bondi to take over after her predecessor refused to prosecute both Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Late Thursday, she announced that she had obtained a true bill from a grand jury to proceed against Comey on two federal charges while appearing by herself in court, which multiple legal observers claimed was highly unusual.
According to the MSNBC reporter, her appearance did not go off without a hitch.
“Ken, just to underline, you mentioned that Halligan was the person who signed this indictment, and that in itself is a bit unusual, as I understand it. But there was also the fact that she presented the case to the grand jury, right. How unusual is that? And there was some awkward moments with the judge — fill us in.”
“Yeah. It's incredibly unusual for a U.S. attorney to do that, particularly one who has just gotten on the job and has no criminal experience. I mean, she didn't know even know where the grand jury room was,” he joked. “She probably had to be shown where it was.”
“There was a little awkwardness in the courtroom because two different versions of the indictment, as I understand it, were presented, and the judge questioned what was going on and noted that Halligan had signed both of them,” he reported. “It had to do with the confusion, I think, over the third count being no-billed by the grand jury, but that just underscored just how new she is at this, and it's raising questions on who is going to prosecute this case.”
“Is it going to be Lindsey Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience? Will they have to bring in somebody from the outside because it appears that nobody inside that office, the Eastern District of Virginia, is prepared to do it,” he added.
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