Editor’s note: The Florida Bar reached out after publication of this piece with new information. Please see this newer post for an update.
The Florida Bar has opened an investigation into Lindsey Halligan, the Donald Trump lawyer whose illegal temporary stint as a top federal prosecutor in Virginia led to dismissal of the revenge-backed prosecutions she brought against Trump targets James Comey and Letitia James. Halligan has since left the Justice Department, but the question remains whether she’ll face any professional discipline from her brief but destructive tenure, which has drawn ethical complaints.
While the answer to that question remains unclear, we learned that there was a possible step taken in that direction in Florida. The New York Times reported Thursday on the existence of a letter confirming an investigation, sent by the bar last month to Campaign for Accountability, a group that had filed a bar complaint against Halligan in the Sunshine State, where she’s licensed, as well as in Virginia, the scene of alleged ethical violations.
The complaint cited several rules of professional conduct that the group said Halligan “may have violated” in service of Trump’s quest for revenge against Comey, the former FBI director, and James, New York’s attorney general. A judge dismissed their cases last year due to the illegality of Halligan’s appointment without Senate confirmation. The administration is appealing.
In the bar complaint, Campaign for Accountability cited rules requiring candor to the court and competence, as well as ones prohibiting extrajudicial statements; knowingly bringing a charge unsupported by probable cause; and being dishonest and deceptive. When the complaint was filed, I noted some challenges it might face in terms of proving the allegations, as well as the fact that the Florida Bar had previously refused to even consider ethical claims against Attorney General Pam Bondi, on the grounds that the bar said it doesn’t investigate or prosecute “sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.”
But that rationale for shielding higher-raking officials hasn’t stopped the state from at least looking into Halligan.
Beyond that, it’s unclear what will come of the Halligan probe. The brief Feb. 4 letter from the bar said the state authorities were aware of recent developments raised by Campaign for Accountability, and that the bar has been “monitoring them closely” and already has an investigation pending. Campaign for Accountability shared the letter with the Times after the newspaper reported Wednesday on the DOJ “trying to stall state bar investigations of their lawyers,” the group said.
While announcing a Feb. 2 renewed complaint to the Virginia State Bar that sought to convince the bar to investigate Halligan, which Campaign for Accountability said it also had shared with the Florida Bar, the group said Halligan “defied clear judicial orders by continuing to represent herself as U.S. Attorney after being told she lacked legal authority to do so, and that she made ‘fundamental misstatements of the law’ to a grand jury that ‘could compromise the integrity of the grand jury process.’”
Whatever happens in Virginia — each state operates on its own — the opening of a Florida investigation raises the question of what that means in that state.
The Florida Bar lays out the process online. It says that after a complaint is filed, an “intake counsel” can reject it if the allegations wouldn’t violate bar rules even if proved; otherwise, the case can move forward toward an investigation. The bar can also initiate inquiries itself.
It’s unclear whether the newly reported investigation was opened in response to Campaign for Accountability’s complaint. But however it got to this point, the matter appears to have cleared at least the initial hurdle of raising plausible ethical violations — not that they’ll necessarily be proved or that any particular form of discipline will come as a result.
While we don’t know the full details of what happened behind the scenes to date, we know that the bar had at least opened an investigation as of last month. On Thursday, I asked the bar what the status was, and a spokesperson said they could confirm that it’s an “open case” but that cases are confidential so they couldn’t share more.
The investigation phase and any further process can take months or longer to play out, and it can result in a range of options from nothing all the way up to disbarment, with other possibilities in between.
It’s unclear when we will learn more, but any discipline would be quite the capstone to Halligan’s prosecutorial stint, especially if the administration is unable to revive the Comey and James cases, not that it would justify any ethical transgressions in the unlikely event that the criminal cases ultimately succeed.
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