The new Virginia US attorney expected to pursue charges against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James is a glamorous former Colorado beauty queen, who had worked only three federal cases before President Trump appointed her.
Lindsey Halligan, 36 — who will replace Erik Siebert after he was reportedly pushed out for refusing to pursue charges against James — was sworn in as interim US attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia Monday.
The former Florida insurance lawyer, who often looks runway-ready in designer suits with flawless hair, is one of the attorneys who represented Trump in civil litigation after his Mar-a-Lago resort was raided for classified documents in August 2022.
She will now have the task of presenting evidence to a grand jury that Comey allegedly lied to Congress, and is expected to take over a mortgage fraud-related probe into a home that James bought in Norfolk in 2023.
All about her upbringing
Halligan grew up in Colorado, where her parents worked in healthcare and she played basketball and softball at a private Catholic school in Broomfield.
The budding legal eagle studied broadcast journalism at Regis University, a Jesuit college in Denver, and went on to graduate from the University of Miami School of Law in 2013.
Back then, she also interned for the Innocence Project — which works to exonerate wrongfully convicted inmates — and the Miami-Dade County public defender’s office, The Washington Post reported in April.
One of her former professors told the paper that people often underestimated Halligan because of her good looks, and called her a “very smart, respectful and well-liked student.”
Beauty Queen competition
In her 20s, Halligan twice competed in Miss Colorado USA, finishing fourth in 2010 and making it to the semi-finals in 2009.
“Sports and pageants taught me confidence, discipline, and how to handle pressure, on the court, on the field, on the stage, in the courtroom, and now in the White House,” Halligan told The Washington Post.
Legal career
Not long after law school, she worked at the Fort Lauderdale-based firm Cole, Scott & Kissane, which specializes in insurance defense litigation.
Halligan largely represented insurance companies in disputes with owners over residential and commercial properties, and became a partner in 2018.
Over the course of her career, however, she has worked on only three federal cases — all while serving as one of Trump’s personal attorneys, according to court records obtained by Fortune magazine.
How she knows Trump
In 2021, she met Trump at a West Palm Beach golf course, where she had come straight from court wearing one of her signature fitted suits. Trump asked her what she did for a living, and she joined his legal team the following year.
Halligan was present during the FBI’s August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago and later represented Trump in a dismissed defamation lawsuit against CNN. She later attended the US Open with him.
She also became a frequent talking head, defending Trump on conservative media outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax.
White House work and US Attorney job
In March 2025, Halligan joined the White House as senior associate staff secretary. Trump then assigned her to lead an initiative to remove “improper ideology” from Smithsonian Institution museums, the National Zoo, and other facilities.
“I would say that improper ideology would be weaponizing history,” Halligan told the Washington Post in April. “We don’t need to overemphasize the negative to teach people that certain aspects of our nation’s history may have been bad.”
Halligan can now serve as interim US attorney for only 120 days unless extended by federal judges or confirmed by the Senate.
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