WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Virginia suggested Tuesday that Lindsey Halligan should resign as U.S. attorney after a ruling declared her appointment unlawful, making her the third jurist to challenge Halligan’s continued claim to the post.

Halligan was handpicked by President Donald Trump to oversee the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia after career prosecutors there resisted pressure to bring criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director, and Letitia James, the attorney general of New York.

Once appointed to the job, Halligan quickly secured indictments of both, but a federal judge dismissed those indictments on procedural grounds in November, ruling that the Trump administration had violated the law for filling vacancies for federal positions.

Still Listed as US Attorney on Court Filings

Still, Halligan remains listed as the U.S. attorney on court filings, drawing the attention of judges and magistrate judges in recent days.

During the hearing Tuesday, the judge, Leonie M. Brinkema, pressed a federal prosecutor to explain why Halligan’s name remained on such filings, despite the court ruling last month. The judge noted that the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Alina Habba, who was appointed in a similarly unorthodox manner and was similarly found by the courts to be serving unlawfully, had resigned Monday.

“That’s the proper position, in my view,” Brinkema said. The judge also questioned whether there was any legal guidance issued by the Justice Department to explain why Halligan was still in the job.

The lawyer representing the government said only that the staff of the Eastern District of Virginia had been told in an email to keep using Halligan’s name as the U.S. attorney.

Inside the Justice Department, officials have asked the Office of Legal Counsel for guidance because the office provides legal analysis for the administration, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

The office has advised department officials that Halligan could stay in spite of a judge’s ruling declaring her appointment invalid because the decision did not require a specific measure to be taken, like her removal, the people said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Devlin Barret/Anna Rose Layden

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