Trump DOJ Attorney Texts Reporter About NY AG Federal Case, Ghosts Request for Clarity

One of President Donald Trump‘s hand-picked U.S. Attorneys — who’s presently prosecuting New York Attorney General Letitia James — reportedly texted with a journalist to complain about her protection of the high-profile case … after which tried to stroll again the remarks.

According to a brand new report … Lawfare’s Anna Bower placed on blast Lindsey Halligan — the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Trump’s former private legal professional — after Halligan allegedly texted her on the Signal app October 11, slamming her reporting on the case towards James.

As everybody is aware of, there isn’t any love misplaced between Trump and James … they each despise one another. You could recall … in 2022, James sued Trump, claiming he overstated the worth of his enterprise property to get favorable loans. She received the $450 million swimsuit, however an appeals court later threw out the monetary penalty.

Now, Trump goes after James — the U.S. Department of Justice charged James with financial institution fraud and making false statements to a monetary establishment, with regard to a second dwelling she bought in Virginia. James’ main house is in Brooklyn, New York … and prosecutors allege James is utilizing the Virginia dwelling as an funding property … as an alternative of a residence for herself.

The New York Times then printed an article saying the fees towards James are weak … and Bowers commented on the NYT story on X, backing up the claims with notes from throughout the article. Bowers’ tweet apparently triggered Halligan, who texted Bowers on the Signal app — an encrypted-message platform broadly utilized by journalists and others for confidentiality — criticizing her for allegedly stating false info — with out explicitly stating what was inaccurate, regardless of repeated asks by Bowers for clarification.

The two reportedly traded messages over Signal … Halligan later advised Bowers their dialog was off the document — Bowers defined she would have saved the dialog off the document in the event that they’d agreed when the dialog started … a regular journalistic conference. Halligan disagreed, and subsequently ghosted Bowers after the journo requested for additional remark from the Department of Justice for a narrative she was writing based mostly on the textual content exchanges.

One huge query is …. did Hannigan violate the regulation? Generally, Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure prohibits prosecutors from discussing issues that occurred earlier than a grand jury. The Federal Records Act additionally requires federal businesses to take care of data of their actions … which seems to be prevented by means of Haillgan’s use of deleting messages on the Signal app.