An interim U.S. attorney fired back after being called President Trump’s ‘puppet.’ A fuming Lindsey Halligan pushed back at the judge who used the label and called the statement false.
The scene unfolded at a hearing at the Federal District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. The judge questioned the credibility of the charges being pursued against James Comey.
In a potentially devastating blow to the DOJ’s case against former FBI Director James Comey, Pres. Trump’s hand-picked U.S. Attorney Lindsay Halligan told a judge that the full grand jury did not see the final Comey indictment. @AaronKatersky reports. https://t.co/8aOAqPPoUW pic.twitter.com/V9KhSldiDX
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) November 20, 2025
The interim US attorney is seeking an indictment for the former FBI Director, and charging him with lying to and obstructing Congress. Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff blasted the Trump-appointed attorney for pursuing the case against Comey.
While Comey’s attorney, Michael R. Dreeben, accused the President of using the Department of Justice to “punish and deter those who would speak out against him.”
“The president of the United States caused the executive branch to prosecute a perceived political enemy,” Dreeben alleged during the hearing. The Biden-appointed federal judge then questioned if Halligan was a “puppet” of the President.
“So Ms. Halligan was the stalking horse or to use a different word — a puppet — for the president?”Nachmanoff was heard inquiring. Dreeben agreed with the statement while adding how she “did what she was told.”
According to a report by the New York Post, Halligan didn’t let the remark pass without addressing it. “Personal attacks, like Judge Nachmanoff referring to me as a ‘puppet,’ don’t change the facts or the law,” she noted in an interview with the publication.
During the same hearing, Dreeben also accused Trump of using the “executive branch to prosecute a perceived enemy.” In the interview with the New York Post, Halligan pointed out how the Judicial Canons require judges to be “patient, dignified, respectful, and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and others with whom the judge deals in an official capacity.”
They are also expected to be “‘act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary,’” she said in reference to the Biden-appointed judge.
Lindsay Halligan strikes again
First Jim Comey
Now Tish James
Who’s up next? pic.twitter.com/nU3M6zJIa1
— Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) October 9, 2025
Halligan admitted that her duty was to “record and the law,” and that is what she would continue to do. Prosecutor Tyler Lemons also defended Halligan in court while emphasizing that she was “not a puppet” for anybody.
He went on to allege that Comey’s lawyer was making “inferential leaps” and making claims with “no proof.” Dreeben tried to urge the federal judge to shut the case while noting that the accusations held no credibility. “This has to stop,” he urged.
