{"id":45754,"date":"2025-11-20T06:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T06:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/45754\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T06:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T06:16:08","slug":"maga-beauty-queen-lindsey-halligan-fumes-after-being-labeled-trumps-puppet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/45754\/","title":{"rendered":"MAGA Beauty Queen Lindsey Halligan Fumes After Being Labeled Trump\u2019s \u2018Puppet\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan is reeling after a judge needled her over the messy indictment of James Comey.<\/p>\n

The beauty queen-turned-prosecutor shot back after federal judge Michael Nachmanoff, a Biden appointee, suggested that she acted as a \u201cpuppet\u201d for President Donald Trump in the case brought against the former FBI director.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonal attacks, like Judge Nachmanoff referring to me as a \u2018puppet,\u2019 don\u2019t change the facts or the law,\u201d Halligan told the New York Post<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

During a testy hearing in Virginia, Comey\u2019s attorney Michael Dreeben accused Halligan of acting on Trump\u2019s command\u2014a charge that the judge appeared to agree with, according to an account by The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president of the United States has caused the executive branch to prosecute a perceived enemy,\u201d Dreeben said, citing a message from Trump addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi that the president inadvertently posted<\/a> on his public Truth Social account last month.<\/p>\n

In the lengthy diatribe, Trump demanded that the Justice Department prosecute his foes, writing, \u201cWe can\u2019t delay any longer, it\u2019s killing our reputation and credibility.\u201d Comey was indicted<\/a> five days later on accusations that he lied to Congress during a hearing in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Ms. Halligan was the stalking horse, or to use a different word\u2014a puppet\u2014for the president?\u201d Nachmanoff asked Dreeben.<\/p>\n

Dreeben responded that he didn\u2019t want to call anyone names, but believed that Halligan \u201cdid what she was told.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MAGA beauty queen, 36, who had no prior prosecutorial experience before her appointment as interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, lashed out at the judge in an interview with the Post.<\/p>\n

\"JamesThe DOJ suffered a fresh blow in the Comey case after prosecutors admitted that they never showed the grand jury the final version of the indictment before it was signed by the foreperson. Michael M. Santiago\/Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Judicial Canons require judges to be \u2018patient, dignified, respectful, and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and others with whom the judge deals in an official capacity\u2019 \u2026 and to \u2018act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy focus remains on the record and the law, and I will continue to fulfill my responsibilities with professionalism,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The Daily Beast has also reached out to Halligan\u2019s office for comment. <\/p>\n

\"U.S.Lindsey Halligan, pictured as part of Donald Trump’s legal team in 2022, was named interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia despite lacking prosecutorial experience. Marco Bello\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Prosecutor Tyler Lemons also pushed back in court, arguing that Comey\u2019s lawyer was making \u201cinferential leaps\u201d and that there was \u201cno proof\u201d Halligan took Trump\u2019s post \u201cas a charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Halligan was not a puppet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department suffered a fresh blow in the Comey case after prosecutors admitted that they never showed the grand jury the final version of the indictment before it was signed by the foreperson.<\/p>\n

Lemons revealed in a jaw-dropping exchange detailed by CNN<\/a> that the Justice Department brought an alternative version of the indictment for the foreperson to sign after the jury declined to approve one count.<\/p>\n

Nachmanoff asked: \u201cAm I correct that the new document was never presented to the grand jury for approval?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t there, but that is my understanding,\u201d Lemons responded. Halligan later confirmed that to the judge.<\/p>\n

Comey\u2019s lawyers quickly pounced on the revelation as further proof that the charges should be thrown out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has to stop,\u201d Dreeben told the judge. \u201cThis court is the first to confront the issue of whether a message needs to be sent to the executive branch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan is reeling after a judge needled her over the messy indictment of James…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[26083,2853,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-45754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-doj","9":"tag-lindsey-halligan","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-queens","14":"tag-queens-headlines","15":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}