Overview
- Lawfare published screenshots of a roughly 33-hour Signal exchange in which acting EDVA U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan criticized Anna Bower’s posts about the Letitia James case and referenced grand jury matters while saying she could not disclose protected information.
- Minutes before Bower’s deadline after she sought DOJ comment, Halligan tried to retroactively declare the entire conversation off the record, a request Bower rejected as contrary to standard practice.
- The Justice Department told Bower that Halligan was attempting to point her to facts rather than gossip and warned about publishing the texts, a response that drew further attention to DOJ media norms.
- Halligan, installed after her predecessor reportedly declined to bring the James case, has no prior prosecutorial experience and is overseeing indictments of New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey; James has denied wrongdoing.
- Comey’s lawyers moved to dismiss his case, arguing Halligan was invalidly appointed, as legal challenges to her authority and to the indictments proceed alongside scrutiny of potential Rule 6(e) grand jury and federal records concerns raised by the Signal exchange.