The Justice Department’s case against former FBI director James Comey is already drawing fire—not just for its legal footing, but for the background of the prosecutor leading it. And according to former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman, the attorney who brought the case may be risking her entire career.
Speaking to Newsweek just before Comey’s arraignment on Wednesday, Akerman didn’t mince words. He said Lindsey Halligan, the newly appointed U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and former Trump White House aide, is “playing a pretty dangerous game here in terms of her law license.”
Let’s be clear: Halligan isn’t just prosecuting any case. She’s leading one of the most high-profile federal charges in recent memory, against a former FBI chief who oversaw politically radioactive investigations—including the one into Russian interference in the 2016 election. But Halligan herself has no prosecutorial background. She’s a former insurance lawyer who, until recently, had never tried a criminal case.
“First of all, she’s taken on something that she has absolutely no background to do, no experience doing, never was a prosecutor,” Akerman told Newsweek in a blunt phone call Wednesday.
He added that the prosecution is “essentially being told to indict somebody as retribution because Donald Trump perceives Comey as an enemy.”
The Justice Department says otherwise. The case hinges on whether Comey misled investigators about authorizing media leaks during his time at the FBI. Prosecutors have to show the statements were false, knowingly false, and material to a Senate Judiciary Committee inquiry. But even some former federal prosecutors don’t see it.
“I don’t think there’s a case,” said Andrew McCarthy on Fox Business’s Wall Street last month. McCarthy, who once served as a federal prosecutor himself, argued the indictment “seems premised on something that’s not true.”
McCarthy pointed to former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe’s own statements—McCabe says he directed the leak to The Wall Street Journal and told Comey after the fact, not before. “So, it’s true that Comey never authorized it in the sense of OK’ing it before it happened,” McCarthy said. “I don’t see how they can make that case.”
But the legal concerns go deeper than the evidence.
Akerman, who helped prosecute the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, believes Halligan’s involvement opens her up to bar discipline—and possibly disbarment. “It’s unethical for a lawyer to do something in an area where they don’t have any expertise,” he said, “and it’s even worse when you take into account when the experienced U.S. attorney who did investigate this matter determined that there was no case here.”
That last part is key: DOJ veterans reportedly raised red flags about the Comey indictment before Halligan pushed it through in September. One former U.S. Attorney, according to Trump’s own Truth Social post, was removed from the role after allegedly refusing to move forward with the case.
Disbarment is the legal equivalent of a death sentence for an attorney’s career. It strips a lawyer of the right to practice law, and it’s typically reserved for serious misconduct. As Akerman put it, “most significantly this is not something that Donald Trump can save her from. A president cannot grant a pardon for being disbarred.”
He pointed to Rudy Giuliani, another Trump loyalist who ended up disbarred in D.C. and Florida for pushing falsehoods about the 2020 election.
“She will not be the first, nor likely the last, Trump lawyer to lose her law license for blindly following the whims of Donald Trump,” Akerman wrote earlier on Substack.
Halligan, for her part, has defended her readiness for the role in unusual terms. “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,” she told The Washington Post last month.
But this isn’t a game or a pageant. The Eastern District of Virginia isn’t exactly an entry-level job—it’s one of the fastest-moving federal courts in the country, known for handling major national security and political cases. Even seasoned prosecutors struggle to keep up with its blistering pace.
It’s also worth noting: Trump has made no secret of his interest in prosecuting Comey. In a September 20 Truth Social post, he said, “There is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so. Lindsey Halligan is a really good lawyer, and likes you, a lot. We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. … JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Comey pled not guilty on Wednesday. The judge set a trial date for January 5.
But the trial may not be the only one looming.
Akerman warned this case “could open up a can of worms for the administration that will be completely embarrassing for both the White House and the Department of Justice and really put them on their heels.”
If he’s right, Halligan may have more to worry about than losing a case in court—she could lose her ability to practice law at all.
