Donald Trump supporter Lindsey Harrigan, a former insurance lawyer who filed two unsuccessful lawsuits against two of the president’s perceived enemies, is no longer a Justice Department employee, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Harrigan, who has no experience as a prosecutor, resigned last week from her official position as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, but a judge found she held the position illegally. It wasn’t entirely clear last week whether Harrigan would take up a new position at the Justice Department after federal appeals court judges disqualified Alina Haba from her role as New Jersey’s deputy prosecutor in December.
But Mr. Halligan is no longer an employee of the Justice Department, according to two people familiar with the matter. It is unclear whether she has a new job outside the Justice Department.
A federal judge ruled last week that Harrigan must stop “impersonating” the Eastern District’s top federal prosecutor.
U.S. District Judge David Novak, a 2019 presidential candidate, said he would allow Harrigan to avoid attorney disciplinary proceedings that would question whether he made false statements in court “given his lack of experience.”
“The court recognizes that Mr. Harrigan lacks the prosecutorial experience that has long been the standard for those appointed as federal prosecutors in this district,” he wrote in an opinion last week. “As a result, given her lack of experience, the court grants Ms. Harrigan the benefit of the doubt and refrains from referring her to this court for further investigation and disciplinary action regarding her false statements at this time.”
Mr. Haba and Mr. Harrigan, along with other Justice Department officials, previously served as the president’s personal lawyers.
