Lindsey Halligan

Lindsey Robyn Michelle Halligan (born July 21, 1989) is an American attorney who unlawfully represented the federal government as interim United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia from September 2025 to January 2026. Her appointment was ruled unlawful by a federal judge in November 2025. She previously served as special assistant to the president and the White House senior associate staff secretary from January to September 2025.

Halligan graduated from Regis University and the University of Miami School of Law. She began working as an insurance lawyer and became a partner at Cole, Scott & Kissane in 2018. In 2022, then-former president Donald Trump named Halligan to his legal team. She was involved in litigation involving the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago. Halligan continued working with Trump on several other legal efforts.

In January 2025, Trump named Halligan as the White House senior associate staff secretary. She advocated for action against exhibits at Smithsonian Institution museums that she saw as disparaging the United States. In September, Trump forced the interim United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, from his position over his handling of his office's investigations into Trump opponents. He named Halligan, who had no prosecutorial experience, as the interim U.S. attorney and nominated her for the position. In November, a judge ruled that Halligan's appointment had exceeded the temporary window established in the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. The Department of Justice appealed the ruling the following month. In January 2026, as judges sought to replace her, Halligan left the Department of Justice.