[This article first appeared at Common Dreams on November 26, 2025.]

by Steven J. Harper

In the service of President Donald Trump, Lindsay Halligan, Trump’s second interim appointment as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, may lose her license to practice law.

Who is Halligan?

Competence is a key requirement for obtaining and retaining a law license. But nothing in Halligan’s education, experience, or training qualified her to prosecute federal crimes, much less lead a U.S. Attorney’s office of more than 300 attorneys and staff in four divisions in Alexandria, Richmond, Norfolk, and Newport News. For starters, she has never tried a criminal case. But Trump always prefers loyalty over competence.

Halligan attended a private Catholic high school and a Jesuit university where she studied politics and broadcast journalism. She competed in the Miss Colorado USA pageant in 2009 and 2010 and received her law degree from the University of Miami School of Law. Upon graduation, she went to work in a Miami law firm, representing insurance companies against homeowners and businesses.

Halligan met Trump in November 2021 at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. In early 2022, he made her part of his legal team on the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

After the election, she worked on Trump’s project to whitewash U.S. history by cleansing the Smithsonian Institution of historically accurate but unpleasant facts. In August, she co-signed a letter instructing eight of the Smithsonian’s museums to replace exhibits that include “divisive or ideologically driven” material with “unifying, historically accurate” displays.

Answering Trump’s Call…

Based on the weakness of the cases against former FBI director James Comey and another Trump target, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Trump’s first interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Eric S. Siebert, refused his demand to indict them. Trump responded by declaring that he wanted Siebert “out.” Hours later, he resigned.

With the statute of limitations on charges against Comey expiring in days, Trump told Attorney General Pam Bondi to appoint 36-year-old Halligan – a senior White House staff secretary and special assistant to the President – as Siebert’s replacement.

“Lindsay Halligan is a really good lawyer, and likes you a lot,” Trump posted in a public message to Bondi.

[To continue reading, please click here to reach my Substack page: [no paywall]:

https://stevenjharper.substack.com/p/the-tragic-case-of-a-very-incompetent

[This article first appeared at Common Dreams on November -, 2025.]

by Steven J. Harper

It can’t happen here.

I live in a quiet, affluent suburb just north of Chicago. Our house is on a brick street, surrounded by well-maintained homes with manicured lawns.

On Halloween day, leaves from 100-year-old oak and maple trees were turning yellow, amber, red, and orange. Landscapers with lawnmowers, leaf blowers, and rakes had begun annual fall cleanups. The setting resembled a Normal Rockwell painting.

As an attorney, I’m trained to make distinctions. A legal precedent that otherwise seems problematic can become irrelevant if the advocate can persuade the court to distinguish it. “The facts of that case are distinguishable from this one, your Honor” is every litigator’s rhetorical tool.

But that skill is fraught with dangerous traps. Distinctions in the service of selective perception and confirmation bias can facilitate complacency.

It Can’t Happen Here

I’ve followed President Donald Trump’s deployment of the military on America’s streets. I watched the Los Angeles mobilization. The chaos and violence was and is disturbing, to say the least. But California is distinguishable from Chicago. For starters, it’s two thousand miles away.

That can’t happen here.

When Trump sent troops into Washington, D.C., that was distinguishable too. D.C. is a special situation where the federal government has unique powers.

Portland? Again, it’s thousands of miles away.

That can’t happen here. Besides, I had faith that the courts would keep Trump’s troops from running amok.

It Can Happen Here

Before Trump moved his fight to Chicago, he posted ominously: “I love the smell of deportations in the morning … Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”

[To continue reading, please click here to reach my Substack page: [no paywall]:

https://stevenjharper.substack.com/p/stormtroopers-in-suburbia