On Tuesday night, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Lindsey Halligan, the lawyer whom President Donald Trump tried to install as the chief federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, will no longer serve in that role. That may sound like old news, since it has been two months since U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie concluded that Halligan's appointment was illegal. But instead of slinking away after Currie's ruling, Halligan stuck around, copying the strategy that George Costanza attempted after he dramatically resigned from his job as a real estate agent: She pretended nothing had happened and hoped no one would notice.
George did not get away with it, and neither did Halligan. "This charade of Ms. Halligan masquerading as the United States Attorney for this District in direct defiance of binding court orders must come to an end," U.S. District Judge David J. Novak, a Trump appointee, declared on Tuesday in a criminal case involving an indictment signed by Halligan. Novak barred Halligan from "representing herself as the United States Attorney in any pleading or otherwise before this Court until such time as she may lawfully hold the office either by Senate confirmation or appointment by this Court."
