Trump’s Pick to Replace Ousted U.S. Attorney Lacks Prosecutorial Experience

Lindsey Halligan worked as a personal lawyer for President Trump and then led the effort to scrutinize the Smithsonian for “improper ideology.”


Lindsey Halligan, who has largely spent her career handling insurance matters in Florida, has filed appearances in only a handful of federal cases during her decade in the law. Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

By Alan Feuer
Sept. 22, 2025

Lindsey Halligan, the lawyer chosen by President Trump to replace the ousted U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, has left no doubt about her willingness to lead a charge on his behalf.

As one of his personal lawyers, Ms. Halligan, a go-for-the-jugular loyalist who is comfortable on television, denounced the F.B.I. when agents seized classified documents in 2022 from Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club and residence in Florida. As a White House special assistant, she has taken the lead in scrutinizing exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution for “improper ideology.”

Lacking from her background altogether, however, is any experience in working as a prosecutor or overseeing the complex national security cases that regularly pass through the Eastern District of Virginia. Court records show that Ms. Halligan, who has largely spent her career handling insurance matters in Florida, has filed appearances in only a handful of federal cases during her decade in the law — all of them as one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers.

Despite her slender résumé, Mr. Trump declared on Saturday that he planned to nominate Ms. Halligan, 36, to assume control of one of the country’s most important prosecutors’ offices at a moment of outsize disarray and tension: just after her predecessor, Erik S. Siebert, was forced out by the White House after failing to bring charges against two of the president’s perceived enemies.

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Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former President Donald J. Trump.