Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

On Thursday, New York attorney general Letitia James was indicted on federal charges related to mortgage-fraud allegations; she’s the second of Donald Trump’s political foes to face questionable federal charges in recent weeks. But while the president has publicly pushed for James’s prosecution, new reporting suggests that the Virginia U.S. attorney’s office that brought the indictment did so without a prior heads-up to a key partner: the leadership of the Justice Department.

ABC News reported on Friday that Lindsey Halligan, the newly appointed U.S. attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia, did not inform Attorney General Pam Bondi or her deputy, Todd Blanche, about her intention to pursue charges against James. Sources told the outlet that the two leaders found out only after Halligan had presented the case to the grand jury.

That report was followed up by CNN, which found that Halligan did not coordinate with Bondi or other top DoJ officials before taking the case to the grand jury but told at least one agency official about her plans. However, a Justice Department spokesman denied that there was any distance between them and insisted that everyone at the agency was on the same page. “As a matter of law, we will not discuss any grand jury matters with the media, but this Justice Department is united as one team in our mission to make America safe again and the attorney general, deputy attorney general, along with the entire team at Main Justice continue to empower our US attorneys to pursue justice in every case,” Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin told CNN.

Notably, Ed Martin, the director of the DoJ Weaponization Working Group who was tasked with assisting on the James inquiry, seemed to know that an indictment was pending. On Thursday morning, Martin tweeted a possibly AI-generated image of a bald eagle flying over the Brooklyn Bridge with the caption “Good morning, America. How are ya’?” He later reshared his own post later that evening after news of James’s indictment broke, adding a thumbs-up emoji. Martin has heavily involved himself in the James investigation. In August, he was photographed inspecting the outside of a Brooklyn home owned by James as neighbors questioned him about his intentions, per the New York Post.

Halligan has led the Virginia U.S. attorney’s office for a little more than two weeks after her predecessor, Erik Siebert, resigned under pressure after he refused to pursue charges against James, feeling that the potential case was too weak. She came to the role with a relatively thin résumé, previously serving as Trump’s personal attorney and having no prosecutorial experience. During her short tenure, her office also sought an indictment against former FBI director James Comey despite prosecutors in her office advising her in a memo that the case lacked evidence, per an ABC report. Comey was ultimately indicted last month by a federal grand jury with Halligan presenting the case alone, as she did in the James case, an atypical sight for a U.S. attorney.

The New York Times reported that both Bondi and Blanche had defended Siebert against administration officials who pushed for his ouster. Sources told the Washington Post that Blanche also questioned the strength of the case against James and was in agreement with Siebert that the office’s investigation lacked enough evidence to prove its claims.

In public, Bondi has expressed support for Halligan and the work she’s doing. After news broke about Comey’s indictment, she wrote on X, “This was a big week at the Department of Justice. Our EDVA US Attorney Lindsey Halligan did an outstanding job.”

Both Bondi and Blanche have shared a group photo featuring them flanking Halligan following her appointment to the Virginia office. “Congratulations to Lindsey Halligan on her appointment as interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The people of Virginia will be greatly served by her dedication to justice and the rule of law,” Blanche wrote.

Related

The Trump DoJ’s Letitia James Indictment Is Just a Show of Power

From Intelligencer - Daily News, Politics, Business, and Tech via this RSS feed