Chief Federal Judge HAS ENOUGH and CRUSHES Trump DOJ

What this episode is about

Chief Judge Hawk of the Eastern District of Virginia has issued an order stripping Lindseay Halligan of her title as U.S. Attorney, creating a vacancy for her position that raises questions about her original appointment amid accusations of illegitimacy. This move follows ongoing scrutiny regarding the appointment procedures for federal officials and highlights the tensions between the judiciary and the Trump administration's legal strategies.

Key takeaways

• Judiciary drama: Lindseay Halligan's title unraveling reveals the tricky dance of legal appointments and vacancies.
• In a game of musical chairs, Halligan's nullified appointment shows even temporary power has its expiration date.
• Article I of the Constitution: a reminder that even a president can't skip the Senate's mandatory confirmation shimmy.
• Judges waiting for a vacancy confirmation? It’s like watching paint dry, only more legally binding and equally suspenseful.
• Halligan's case highlights: one judge's 'imposter syndrome' ruling can reshape the very fabric of federal appointment legitimacy.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Michael Pop (Host) · 11 min speaking
• Lindseay Halligan (Guest)
• Judge Curry (Guest)
• Judge Novak (Guest)
• Chief Judge Hawk (Guest)

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Michael Pop, Chief Judge Hawk
2. 6:00 – 9:00: Chief Judge Hawk
3. 9:00 – 11:47: Michael Pop

Notable quotes from "Chief Federal Judge HAS ENOUGH and CRUSHES Trump DOJ"

• Title, but I don't like it in the way that it's been done. I brought the receipts. Let's get to it here on the Midas Touch and Legal AF networks and podcast. Okay, here we go.…

  about Michael Pop · at 1:12

• Well, he's going to throw the book at them. And then, like out of the blue, an inadvertent life preserver comes in the form of Chief Judge Hannah L or Lux order. I don't understand. Again, I get the I get where we're at, right?

  about Chief Judge Hawk · at 6:12

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Michael Pop — Person · Host / main speaker (narrator) · 2 mentions · first at 1:16
  He narrates the legal analysis, critiques the chief judge's reasoning, and promotes Legal AF/Midas Touch channels and Substack resources.
• Chief Judge Hawk — Person · Referenced chief judge issuing new order (vacancy timing dispute) · 2 mentions · first at 1:01
  The episode analyzes a new order attributed to the EDVA chief judge that treats the vacancy as arising on Jan 20, creating tension with Judge Curry's earlier order and affecting Judge Novak proceedings.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Sometimes in breaking news, we get orders from federal judges that we like, like the one that just came out from the chief judge in the Eastern District of Virginia that on the surface strips Lindseay Hallan of her US attorney title in the Eastern District of Virginia and then tries to fill the vacancy with a new help wanted poster. I sort of like that. I just don't understand the the how the chief judge got there because that vacancy was created back in November, November the 24th when a person wearing a black robe and as a judge named Judge Curry issued an order stripping Lindseay Halligan of her title and creating a quote unquote vacancy waiting for the Eastern District of Virginia judges to fill. Now, we've been banging the drum here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF for the Eastern District of Virginia's uh judges to get together as is required under the Vacancy Reform Act to fill that spot. We

0:57 were scratching our head like why aren't they doing it? I might have the answer to that mystery in the new order from Chief Judge Hawk, but I just don't agree with how she got there. Again, like the headline, stripping Lindseay Hallan of a title, but I don't like it in the way that it's been done. I brought the receipts. Let's get to it here on the Midas Touch and Legal AF networks and podcast. Okay, here we go. Lindseay Halligan, the novice prosecutor, no prosecutor experienced, one of Donald Trump's best friends, gets appointed by him in and around October to do two things. to go after former FBI Director James Comey, go after current New York Attorney General Leticia James with mortgage fraud indictments. She gets the indictments somehow, but both parties challenge her title that she was not properly appointed. She was illegally appointed, unconstitutionally appointed to be a US attorney. See, we have rules

2:00 about these things. They're baked into the Constitution. Article one gives the Senate the power to confirm. And if parties are not confirmed, unless they are filling in temporarily under a statute we call the vacancy reform act, they can't play prosecutor. So the statute anticipates that if there is a vacancy created, there's about three or four different ways that vacancy can be filled. The easiest way is to elevate the person that was in the job as the deputy assistant, the first assistant to that US attorney. Failing that, then you can put somebody in for 120 days.

2:42 Failing that, you can put somebody in who's been confirmed in a Senate position for some other job like agriculture secretary can serve as the US attorney if you wanted him to. At least they're Senate confirmed. and absent that, it gets filled by the judges of the district until the president gets what his own person confirmed from the Senate. Well, Trump didn't want to do that. He didn't want to put Lindsay Halligan through the process. He just nominated her on the 13th of January. She's been in the job since October.

3:12 Now, this all got before a federal judge named Judge Curry, who ruled in November after a hearing and briefing that Lindseay Halligan was illegally appointed. What was her primary basis for that? That that she was interim US attorney. Number two, there had been an earlier one named Eric Severt, a Republican who quit or was fired because he wouldn't go after Comey and Leticia James. That created a vacancy that could not be filled. So, Judge Curry ruled by another 120day appointed person. You could only elevate at that point the number two. there wasn't a number two there that they wanted to elevate.

3:52 Lindsay Halligan didn't fit the bill or they could pull somebody else in from another area of the administration already confirmed. They didn't want to do that. They wanted Lindseay Halligan. So, they tried to do an end run to make her special attorney, you know, the way that Jack Smith was special attorney or special prosecutor. And nobody bought that. And Judge Curry on the 24th of November ruled that she was illegally appointed. Ruled that her indictments were invalid as a result. bounced her from the job and declared at the end of the order that there was a vacancy created that could only be filled by the chief by the judges of that district. So we we were all waiting around for the for the judges to get together like what are they waiting for? I mean every few days during a hot take I would say still waiting for the Eastern District of Virginia judges. Now when there was a vacancy created in New

4:41 Jersey before Alina Haba the judges got together and put somebody in. and she was fired 24 hours later, but at least they tried. And eventually Alina Hava got fired and bounced by a judge, affirmed by the third circuit, and she's gone. This path on appeal, Trump's been slowing down the appeal. He's trying to he's trying to do an end run around, create a loophole to continue her in the job, showing up every day impersonating a US attorney. As far as I'm concerned, she's been impersonating a US attorney since the afternoon of June of November 24th. But it was weird. We were like, "Why aren't the judges in the Virginia meeting?" Well, I think I have the answer. It's not a great answer, but I think I have the answer. It's because they didn't really believe that a vacancy was created until today, until the 20th of January. what vacancy was created on the 24th of November, which is important because Judge Novak, who is

5:40 one of the many judges of the Eastern District, has called Lindseay Halligan out and has required the Department of Justice to defend why she's impersonating since November a US attorney and why she shouldn't be sanctioned. And I thought, all right, well, sounds like a good argument. Department of Justice last week, today, last week, attacked Judge Novak. He has no right. He has no power. She's not impersonating. Judge Curry's decision doesn't apply in every courtroom. Only applies about Leticia James and James Comey, which makes no sense. And I was like, well, he's going to throw the book at them. And then, like out of the blue, an inadvertent life preserver comes in in the form of Chief Judge uh Hannah L or Lux order. I don't understand. Again, I get the I get where we're at, right?

6:28 You know, we're I get we got maybe to the same place with different math. Like 2 plus 2 is four and three and 1 is four, but but I don't think so. Yes, it strips Lindsay Hallan of the title. But today, we're on the 20th of January. Here's what she Here's the weird part. Let me read it to you and I'll put it up on legal a Substack order to uh Jan 20. On September 22nd, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, citing 28 USC section 546, that's the vacancy reform act, stated that she was appointing Lindseay Hallan to serve as the interim US attorney.

7:03 Okay. The order recognized that Miss Hallagan may not serve as the interim beyond the earlier of her appointment and confirmation at the Senate. Okay, I sort of agree with that. Or 120 days after Miss Halligan's appointment by the attorney general. That date is January 20th, 2026. Stop. Stop. Lindsey Halligan was the second interim US attorney completely ignored by the order. There was a prior US attorney. Also ignored by the order is any mention and I looked on the one and a half page order of Judge Curry's decision as of November 24th to to which I respectfully ask Chief the chief judge what do you think Judge Curry was doing if not deciding whether there was an illegal appointment and declaring there was a vacancy. How do you read the order? It's not rhetorical.

7:51 It's actually a direct question. And why do you ignore it? There's not even a footnote that says, "Well, we understand there's some debate about when the vacancy was created, but we're taking the position that it's today." I don't see that anywhere. Really weird. Weird. So now, but it does explain why from November 24th until today, it's been crickets and silence at the Eastern District of Virginia. So, um, they go on to say since they're starting with today as the vacancy, we got to fill that vacancy. Okay. So they are um in the exercise of the authority to appoint an interim US attorney until the position is filled by the Senate.

8:31 The court is soliciting expressions of interest in the position. Send in your solicitation in the next your your your interest, your confidential expression of interest like your resume, your application by the 20 uh in 21 days. To which I joked with the Midas folks, I'm going to apply. But again, all kidding aside, it's really serious cuz I don't like what this potentially does in the Judge Novak case because he has in front of him to get the last word in a order to show cause in which he he demanded as a federal judge has the right to do under his inherent authority for the Department of Justice to explain why he shouldn't strip Lindsay Hall of her license because in his view, she'd been impersonating and masquerading as a US attorney since Judge Curry's order, which he recognized.

9:21 back on November 24th, but the chief judge just like an etch a sketch just like erased the date and said, "No, it's today." I'm like, "What? Why are you bailing out the Trump administration?" And to answer the question, she's a Barack Obama appointee. We're going to see the next steps. I can only predict what they're going to be. The Department of Justice saying to Judge Novak, "See, even your chief judge doesn't believe that there was a vacancy before today. So, you can't um buck the chief judge and say that there was one earlier. She doesn't even agree with you. There's no mention of Judge Curry.

9:57 See, we've see their position, the Department of Justice's position has always been that Judge Curry was only speaking about the Leticia James and James Kobe case and nothing else. And that um she was powerless to declare the vacancy, and she never declared a vacancy, but she did. She did. I've always been calling for two things to happen. Judge Curry to issue a clarifying order that she created a vacancy and that the chief judges need to meet and fill it. I've been bound in the table on that for two and a half months. And now you see what's happened.

10:29 You know, idle hands, devil's play thing, making mischief out of the loophole and a little bit of vagory and ambiguity in the order if you read it a certain way. Now, Judge Hawk, Hawk, Hawk, whatever pronunciation is comes in. Um, I'm sorry. Luck and says, "Today's the day for the vacancy." So weird. I'll continue to follow it. Fastmoving story here on Midas Touch and Legal AF. Take a moment, come over to Legal AF YouTube channel. I got 12 hours of programming every day at the intersection of law and politics and our legal AF Substack where you can read the order for yourself. Until then, I'm Michael Pop. Can't get your fill of legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack.

11:21 You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Chief Federal Judge HAS ENOUGH and CRUSHES Trump DOJ"?

Michael Pop (Host), Lindseay Halligan (Guest), Judge Curry (Guest), Judge Novak (Guest), Chief Judge Hawk (Guest).

What is "Chief Federal Judge HAS ENOUGH and CRUSHES Trump DOJ" about?

Chief Judge Hawk of the Eastern District of Virginia has issued an order stripping Lindseay Halligan of her title as U.S. Attorney, creating a vacancy for her position that raises questions about her original appointment amid accusations of illegitimacy. This move follows ongoing scrutiny regarding the appointment procedures for federal officials and highlights the tensions between the judiciary…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

2 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Michael Pop, Chief Judge Hawk. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Chief Federal Judge HAS ENOUGH and CRUSHES Trump DOJ"?

The episode runs 12 min; the transcript is about 2,041 words in 16 timestamped sections.

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