Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
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A federal judge tossed out criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James, ruling that the White House aide installed as prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed.
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The Pentagon has said it’s investigating Democratic senator Mark Kelly of Arizona for possible breaches of military law after Kelly joined a handful of other lawmakers in a video that reminded US troops they can refuse unlawful orders.
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US and Ukrainian diplomats discussed a US peace plan for an end to the war in Ukraine started by Russia that appears to match a Kremlin wishlist.
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Donald Trump signed an executive order “to begin the process of designating certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organizations”.
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Democrats, and retired Republican congressman Ron Paul, rallied in support of Kelly, after the retired former navy pilot and astronaut was threatened with court-martial by the Pentagon. “Secretary Hegseth,” Kelly’s fellow Arizona senator Reuben Galllego said, “fuck you”.
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Maria Salazar, a Republican congresswoman from Miami, told Fox Business that Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, understands “that we’re about to go in”, and the prime reason is “oil”.
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In an interview with Megyn Kelly, Erika Kirk said that her late husband Charlie told her before his death that his political organization, Turning Point USA, should support JD Vance in the 2028 presidential election. Kirk said: “One of the last few conversations we had was how intentional he was about supporting JD for ’28.”
Key events
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Closing summary
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Preventable deaths from USAID funding cuts exceed 640,000, model suggests
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Erika Kirk says Turning Point USA intends to support JD Vance in 2028 election, following her late husband’s wishes
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Republican congresswoman says ‘we’re about to go in’ to Venezuela and the main reason is oil
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Democrats rally to defend Mark Kelly against Pentagon charge video to troops could lead to court martial
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Outrage over Democrats’ video on illegal orders defies ‘common sense and basic morality’, Ron Paul says
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Trump signs executive order to designate Muslim Brotherhood chapters ‘foreign terrorist organizations’
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Leavitt insists that Lindsey Halligan was legally appointed after federal judge tosses out indictments
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White House supports Pentagon’s investigation into Mark Kelly, says press secretary
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Here’s a recap of the day so far
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Trump to visit Beijing in April, after ‘very good’ call with Xi Jinping
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‘I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies,’ senator Kelly responds to secretary Hegseth
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Judge dismisses charges against ex-FBI director James Comey, rebuking Trump’s prosecutor
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Pentagon says it’s investigating senator Mark Kelly for video urging troops to defy ‘illegal orders’
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Xi tells Trump Taiwan’s ‘return’ key to post-war order – reports
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Trump eyes new healthcare plan, includes two-year Obamacare extension – reports
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Trump administration ends Temporary Protected Status for Myanmar
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New poll shows overwhelming majority of Americans opposed to military action in Venezuela
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Marjorie Taylor Greene calls out ‘smear, lies, attacks and name calling’ following resignation announcement
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Trump touts tariff ‘POWER’ and ‘RECORD SETTING’ payments in Truth Social post
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What is the Cartel de los Soles ‘group’ linked to Maduro?
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‘Something good just may be happening,’ Trump says on Ukraine talks
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US and Ukraine negotiators continue hammering out peace plan in Geneva
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Doge quietly disbanded ahead of schedule
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Maduro warned Trump against ‘forever war’
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US reportedly ready for next phase of Venezuela military operations
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Good morning
Preventable deaths from USAID funding cuts exceed 640,000, model suggests
While Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (a name constructed mainly to create an operation with the acronym Doge, in reference to a meme) has reportedly been dissolved, the human impact of its work, mainly the cuts to USAID’s life-saving foreign aid projects, continue.
As the former head of USAID’s global health efforts, Atul Gawande reported for the New Yorker earlier this month, an independent, peer-reviewed analysis in The Lancet in July concluded that the agency had saved nearly 92 million lives from 2001 to 2021.
As Gawande noted, Brooke Nichols, a Boston University epidemiologist and to estimate the ongoing human impact of the funding cuts to health and nutrition Musk set in motion in February, when he joked that he and his Doge staff had “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper”.
The Nichols model estimates that, some time on Monday, the death toll from the cuts to USAID driven by Musk exceeded 640,000 people, two-thirds of them children.
Last week, after an ABC News reporter asked Donald Trump’s guest, Mohammed bin Salman, about his role in the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the White House sent reporters a list of what it claimed were “lies, conspiracies, and outright opinion thinly veiled as fact” broadcast by the network’s news division.
One of the examples on the list was the charge that, in a September interview with the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos had “repeatedly – and falsely – insisted that people had somehow ‘died’ because of the Trump Administration’s decision to shutter” USAID.
“No one has died because the United States has cut aid,” Rubio insisted in that interview. “No. People have died because gangs steal the aid. People have died because the distributors of aid have not done well. People have died because other countries haven’t stepped up. But the United States has saved more lives, and continues to save more lives, than any other country in the world.”
But according to the respected Boston University epidemiologist, 88 people are still dying every hour of unprevented, or inadequately treated, HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, diarrhea or malnutrition, as a result of the shuttering of USAID.
Erika Kirk says Turning Point USA intends to support JD Vance in 2028 election, following her late husband’s wishes
In an interview with Megyn Kelly released on Monday, Erika Kirk said that her late husband Charlie told her before his death that his political organization, Turning Point USA, should support JD Vance in the 2028 presidential election
“That was a thing that my husband was very direct about,” Kirk said. “One of the last few conversations we had was how intentional he was about supporting JD for ’28.”
Kelly also asked Kirk what she made of the viral backlash to the hug she gave Vance at a public appearance at the University of Mississippi last month. Kirk said that she hugged Vance in a style that is common for her and recounted the circumstances of the hug.
“They just played the emotional video – I’m walking over, he’s walking over. I’m starting to cry,” Kirk said. “He says, ‘He’s so proud of you.’ And I say, ‘God bless you,’ and I touch the back of his head. Anyone who I have hugged, that I have touched the back of your head when I hug you, I always say, ‘God bless you.’”
“That’s just me,” she continued. “If you want to take that out of context, go right ahead. Again, that to me shows that you need a hug.”
Earlier this month, Kirk gave a similar hug to Sergio Gor, the new US ambassador to India, during an Oval Office ceremony.
Before Donald Trump disappears from public view for most of the week (the president’s schedule includes no public events after the pardoning of a turkey on Tuesday, before he leaves for his Palm Beach resort), he signed an executive order on Monday to launch a government-wide effort to build an integrated artificial intelligence platform, the White House said.
The effort, called the Genesis Mission, aims to transform scientific research and speed scientific discoveries by using massive government scientific datasets “to train scientific foundation models and create AI agents to test new hypotheses, automate research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs”.
Trump directed the US energy department and US national laboratories “to unite America’s brightest minds, most powerful computers, and vast scientific data into one cooperative system for research”.
As part of the effort, which the energy secretary, Chris Wright, compared with the Manhattan Project, the energy department will create an AI experimentation platform integrating US supercomputers and datasets to generate foundation models and power robotic laboratories.
Republican congresswoman says ‘we’re about to go in’ to Venezuela and the main reason is oil
Speaking on Fox Business on Monday, Maria Salazar, a Republican congresswoman from Miami, said that Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, understands “that we’re about to go in”.
Pressed by the host David Asman to address Americans who do not want “actual US participation in regime change in Venezuela, Salazar, a former Spanish-language television journalist who was born in Miami to Cuban exiles, said that “Americans who do not understand why we need to go in” should consider three reasons.
The first of those reasons, she said, is that “Venezuela for the American oil companies will be a field day” generating “more than a trillion dollars in economic activity”.
“American companies can go in and fix … the oil rigs and everything that has to do with oil,” Salazar said.
She then claimed that Venezuela has been “the hub for our enemies”, including, she said, “the Iranians, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Cubans, the Nicaraguans, people that hate the United States”.
Salazar’s third reason that a US invasion would be justified was her claim that Maduro is the head of a drug cartel, the Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns.
Salazar went on to suggest that US forces would be welcomed as liberators if they force out the unpopular Maduro, who is widely believed to have lost the most recents Venezuelan presidential election but stayed in office through widespread fraud.
“This is going to be very similar to Panama,” Salazar said, referring to the US invasion in 1989 to arrest the former US ally Manuel Noriega, who was wanted in the US on racketeering and drug trafficking charges.
“I was there, I was a news reporter,” Salazar said, “and I remember when the marines were walking in and the Panamanian girls were asking them to marry them. So, I think it’s very similar.”
Democrats rally to defend Mark Kelly against Pentagon charge video to troops could lead to court martial
Fellow Democrats have rallied in support of Arizona senator Mark Kelly, a retired former navy pilot and astronaut who was threatened with court-martial on Monday by the Pentagon over his statements in a social media video reminding serving members of the military and intelligence community that they are not obliged to follow unlawful orders.
Senator Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who served in Iraq and also took part in the video, posted her support of Kelly on social media. “This is the President’s playbook: using intimidation, harassment, and the weight of the federal government to try and silence anyone who speaks up against him,” she wrote. “That won’t stop Senator Kelly, or any of us, from standing up for what’s right.”
Kelly’s fellow senator from Arizona, Ruben Gallego, a former marine who served in Iraq, voiced his support for Kelly, and disdain for Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, in more stark language.
“Fuck you and your investigation,” Gallego wrote in response to the Pentagon’s announcement that Kelly could be recalled to active duty for court-martial proceedings.
“This is fucking insane,” the senator added in a social media video addressed to Hegseth, a former Fox News weekend anchor who served in Iraq as a captain in the Minnesota national guard.
“Mark Kelly is a patriot,” Gallego added. “Secretary Hegseth, all these guys: fuck you guys. You’re not going to be able to scare us. We have a right to defend the constitution of the United States. We have a right to tell other service members they have a right to ignore illegal orders, and you’re not going to be able to intimidate us.”
Outrage over Democrats’ video on illegal orders defies ‘common sense and basic morality’, Ron Paul says
Ron Paul, the former Republican congressman and presidential candidate, is among those who have voiced support for he six Democrats who argued in a social media video that US soldiers and intelligence officers should refuse to obey illegal orders.
Paul, 90, wrote on social media: “Common sense and basic morality should have prevented the outrage. The uniform code of military justice claims that military personnel have a ‘legal and ethical’ duty to disregard unlawful orders. This is a worthy debate that needs to occur.”
“Our repeatedly unlawful and illegal process of going into war needs to be addressed,” the former congressperson added.
Paul’s son Rand, a Republican senator from Kentucky, suggested on Sunday that the Trump administration’s lethal air strikes on suspected drug smugglers, made without a declaration of war by Congress, could be illegal.
Administration officials, the senator told CBS News, “are pretending as if we are ‘at war’” with Venezuela to justify blowing up boats.
“We normally don’t shoot boats that we suspect” of being used for drug smuggling, Paul said. “About one in four of the vessels” that the Coast Guard normally stop and search, Paul added, don’t have drugs. “So it actually would be unlawful if the Coast Guard started blowing up boats, but for some reason they say ‘Oh we’re at war off the coast of Venezuela, and so its a different rule of engagement.’”
Trump signs executive order to designate Muslim Brotherhood chapters ‘foreign terrorist organizations’
The White House just posted the full text of a new executive order Donald Trump signed on Monday, “to begin the process of designating certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organizations”.
Laura Loomer, a pro-Israel, anti-Muslim extremist with unusual influence over Trump, responded to the announcement by renewing her call for the administration to designate as terrorists Muslim American elected officials she claims, without evidence, are connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Writing on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, which Loomer was barred from for anti-Muslim racism before it was purchased by Elon Musk, the extremist podcaster called on Monday for the White House to use the new designation to arrest and jail three prominent Muslim Democrats: Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Zohran Mamdani.
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, has welcomed the decision by a federal judge to dismiss the criminal case against her on Monday, on the grounds that the prosecutor who brought the case, former White House aide Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed.
“The court’s order acknowledges what’s been clear about this case from the beginning,” Lowell said in a statement. “The President went to extreme measures to substitute one of his allies to bring these baseless charges after career prosecutors refused. This case was not about justice or the law; it was about targeting Attorney General James for what she stood for and who she challenged. We will continue to challenge any further politically motivated charges through every lawful means available.”
While gaggling with reporters, Karoline Leavitt said that she had spoken with secretary of state Marco Rubio “at length” following the US delegation’s meeting with Ukrainian officials in Geneva. She also mentioned that she’d spoken with the president.
“Everybody inside feels optimistic about what happened in transpired yesterday,” she said. “The whole team really worked through the points of that 28-point peace plan that the United States authored, with input from both sides, the Russians and the Ukrainians.”
Leavitt affirmed that “the vast majority” of these points had been agreed upon. “The Ukrainians have worked on language with us together,” she said. “So we feel as though we’re in a very good place.”
Leavitt insists that Lindsey Halligan was legally appointed after federal judge tosses out indictments
The White House press secretary insisted that Lindsey Halligan, the interim US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia handpicked by Donald Trump, was legally appointed to her position.
This comes after a federal judge threw out the charges against James Comey and Letitia James, saying Halligan had no “legal authority” to charge two of the president’s most notable adversaries.
“The Department of Justice will be appealing very soon, and it is our position that Lindsey Halligan is extremely qualified for this position, but more importantly, was legally appointed to it,” Leavitt told reporters.
The press secretary said that Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, who issued today’s rulings, was “trying to shield” the former FBI director and New York attorney general “from receiving accountability”.
White House supports Pentagon’s investigation into Mark Kelly, says press secretary
Speaking to reporters outside the West Wing today, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the White House supports the Pentagon’s announcement that it is investigating veteran and Arizona senator Mark Kelly.
“Today, the Democratic lawmaker accused the Department of Defense of intimidation”, Leavitt pushed back when asked about Kelly’s statement.
“I think what senator Mark Kelly was actually trying to do was intimidate the 1.3 million active-duty service members who are currently serving in our United States Armed Forces with that video that he and his Democrat colleagues put out,” the press secretary said, referencing the social media post where six Democratic members of Congress told members of the military that they should “refuse” illegal orders.
“They knew what they were doing in this video, and Senator Mark Kelly and all of them should be held accountable for that,” Leavitt added today.
My colleague, Jeremy Barr, has been combing through the tens of thousands of pages that were released on Sunday as part of voting technology company Smartmatic’s $2.7bn defamation lawsuit against Fox News over its coverage of the 2020 presidential election.
He notes that Fox News has strenuously denied Smartmatic’s claims and said the company has vastly overstated its value. In a statement, Smartmatic said Fox’s “attempts to delay accountability won’t work, and its day of reckoning is coming”.
You can read the top takeaways from the documents below.
Here’s a recap of the day so far
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In a blow to Trump’s justice department, a federal judge has tossed out criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-installed prosecutor who secured the indictment against two of the president’s most noted adversaries, was illegally appointed to her position as US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia. Currie wrote that Halligan had “no lawful authority” to present the indictments to both Comey and James (in separate cases).
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The Pentagon has said it’s investigating Democratic senator Mark Kelly of Arizona for possible breaches of military law after Kelly joined a handful of other lawmakers in a video that called for US troops to refuse unlawful orders. The Pentagon’s statement, which was posted on social media this morning, cited a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the defense secretary for possible court martial or other measures. For his part, Kelly wrote in a statement that he’s “given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution”.
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Talks continued in Geneva between US and Ukrainian representatives today. Earlier, Donald Trump said that “something good just may be happening” in a post on Truth Social. Meanwhile, Ukraine has significantly amended the US “peace plan” for Ukraine, removing some of Russia’s maximalist demands, people familiar with the negotiations said, as European leaders warned on Monday that no deal could be reached quickly. For his part, Volodymyr Zelenskyy may meet Donald Trump in the White House later this week.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has filed a notice in the federal register to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the roughly 10,000 Myanmar nationals living in the US. This, despite the country being ruled by a military dictatorship that has a record of executing dissidents. The Trump administration has already withdrawn protected status for a number of other nationalities, including Afghanistan, Cameroon, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, South Sudan and Venezuela, as part of sweeping changes to immigration policy.
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The outgoing Georgia congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, said today that “smears, lies, attacks, and name calling is childish behavior, divisive, and bad for our country”. This comes after she announced her decision to resign from Congress in January. In recent weeks, Greene has had a very public falling out with Donald Trump, which culminated in the president calling her a “traitor” after she supported a vote for the justice department to release the complete trove of Jeffrey Epstein files. Today, without naming the president or any Republican colleagues, the Georgia lawmaker pushed back on X. “Memes and red meat rants do nothing. Actions speak louder than words,” Greene wrote
Trump to visit Beijing in April, after ‘very good’ call with Xi Jinping
The president has said he will visit Beijing in April, after a “very good” call with China’s leader, Xi Jinping.
Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he “discussed many topics including Ukraine/Russia, Fentanyl, Soybeans and other Farm Products”.
He also teased a “good, and very important, deal for our Great Farmers”, and summarised the relationship with China as “extremely strong”. This despite a brewing trade war with the nation, following their decision to limit exports of rare earth minerals, and the US issuing retaliatory tariffs.
“President Xi invited me to visit Beijing in April, which I accepted,” Trump added. “I reciprocated where he will be my guest for a State Visit in the U.S. later in the year. We agreed that it is important that we communicate often, which I look forward to doing.”
‘I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies,’ senator Kelly responds to secretary Hegseth
Earlier, we brought you the news that the Department of Defense is investigating veteran and sitting Democratic senator Mark Kelly.
This, after the Arizona lawmaker joined five other members of Congress in telling active duty military to “refuse illegal orders” in a social media video.
For his part, Kelly has responded in a statement. “Secretary Hegseth’s tweet is the first I heard of this. I also saw the President’s posts saying I should be arrested, hanged, and put to death,” he wrote in a post on X. “If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.”
Kelly also gave a brief summary of his military career:
In combat, I had a missile blow up next to my jet and flew through anti-aircraft fire to drop bombs on enemy targets. At NASA, I launched on a rocket, commanded the space shuttle, and was part of the recovery mission that brought home the bodies of my astronaut classmates who died on Columbia. I did all of this in service to this country that I love and has given me so much.
Halligan’s conduct in the Comey case came under sustained scrutiny from three different judges. A magistrate judge determined that Halligan may have committed other significant legal errors in instructing and presenting evidence to the same grand jury.
The justice department denied to Reuters that Halligan engaged in any misconduct and argued that the magistrate judge’s ruling was based on misinterpretations and assumptions.
A reminder that Comey was charged with making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation. Prosecutors alleged he lied to the Senate judiciary committee during a 2020 hearing when he said he stood behind prior testimony that he had not authorized FBI leaks about investigations into Trump and his 2016 presidential election rival, Hillary Clinton.
Comey has had an antagonistic relationship with Trump since his first term in 2017, when the president fired Comey while he was overseeing an investigation into alleged ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
Comey, who pleaded not guilty, mounted an array of legal challenges to the case, arguing that Halligan was unlawfully appointed as interim US attorney, that the case was an improper “vindictive” prosecution engineered by Trump, and that the substance of the false statement allegation was legally flawed.
A federal judge has tossed out criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James.
District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-installed prosecutor who secured the indictment against two of the president’s most noted adversaries, was illegally appointed to her position as US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia.
Currie wrote that Halligan had “no lawful authority” to present the indictments to both Comey and James (in separate cases). Lawyers for the former FBI director argued that when Halligan secured the indictment, the clock for a temporary US attorney had been run-out by her predecessor, Erik Siebert (who had already served for 120 days). They said it ultimately disqualified Halligan from holding the position at all.
