Donald Trump’s favored beauty queen-turned-lawyer is now at the heart of a controversy following a peculiar and heated text message exchange with a journalist.
Lindsey Halligan, who was recently appointed to oversee the Justice Department’s Eastern District of Virginia, initiated contact with Anna Bower, a senior editor at Lawfare, earlier this month. The correspondence concerned Bower’s social media commentary on the DOJ’s case against New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Halligan criticized Bower, accusing her of distorting the facts of the James prosecution by “assuming exculpatory evidence without knowing what you’re talking about” and “jumping to conclusions.”
The conversation continued on the encrypted Signal app, where Halligan accused Bower of attempting “to twist and torture the facts to fit your narrative.” Despite Bower’s repeated requests for clarification on what was inaccurate in her reporting, Halligan did not provide specific examples.
In an unusual move, Halligan later declared that her entire correspondence with Bower was retroactively off the record and could not be published.
“By the way — everything I ever sent you is off record,” Halligan informed Bower, ensuring that their messages would be deleted after eight hours. “You’re not a journalist, so it’s weird saying that, but just letting you know,” she added.
‘I’m sorry, but that’s not how this works,’ Bower responded. ‘You don’t get to say that in retrospect.’
Halligan fired back: ‘Yes, I do. Off record.’ The entire text conversation occurred over a period of 33 hours.
Lindsey Halligan has found herself wrapped up in a bizarre text message scandal with a journalist over her prosecution of Letitia James
The former beauty queen was recently appointed to lead the Eastern District of Virginia
Lawfare senior editor Anna Bower informed Halligan their conversation was not off-the-record
In journalism, ‘off-the-record’ agreements must be established before a conversation begins — not declared retroactively after a source realizes they have said too much.
‘I am really sorry. I would have been happy to speak with you on an off the record basis had you asked,’ Bower added. ‘But you didn’t ask, and I still haven’t agreed to speak on that basis. Do you have any further comment for the story?’
According to screenshots posted by Bower, Halligan then claimed it was ‘obvious’ their conversation was off-the-record because it was ‘on signal.’
‘What is your story? You never told me about a story,’ Halligan protested. Regardless, Bower published the story along with the entire chat history.
Halligan’s bizarre text exchange with the journalist comes as her office charges the New York attorney general of mortgage fraud.
James’ indictment claims she signed a ‘Second Home Rider, which required James, as the sole borrower, to occupy and use the property as her secondary residence, and prohibits its use as a timesharing or other shared ownership agreement or agreement that requires her to rent the property or give any other person control over the occupancy or use of the property.
In making the ‘misrepresentation,’ the prosecutors allege James received a avoided a 0.815 percent higher mortgage rate, resulting in approximately $17,837 in savings over the course of the loan and was able to obtain a seller credit of approximately $3,288.
James now faces penalties including up to 30 years in prison per count, up to a $1 million fine on each count and forfeiture of her properties.
The attorney general has denied any wrongdoing, and accused Halligan’s prosecution of being a ‘desperate weaponization of our justice system.’
Halligan is prosecuting New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud
Halligan is seen as a Trump loyalist within the Department of Justice
Following Bower’s conversation with Halligan, the Justice Department again claimed in a statement that the text exchange was off-the-record.
A spokesman said: ‘Lindsay [sic] Halligan was attempting to point you to facts, not gossip, but when clarifying that she would adhere to the rule of the law and not disclose Grand Jury information, you threaten to leak an entire conversation. Good luck ever getting anyone to talk to you when you publish their texts.’
Halligan went completely rogue earlier this month white indicting James, ditching any coordination with the attorney general or her team, according to reports.
Halligan did tell at least one Justice Department official that she was planning on moving forward with charging James, but ended up presenting the case alone to a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia.
