Who Is Donald Trump’s Beauty Queen Prosecutor Lindsey Halligan? Meet the Senior White House Aide-Turned-Interim U.S. Attorney in Virginia

Lindsey Halligan is drawing widespread attention after Donald Trump appointed her as the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The beauty queen prosecutor was born in Portland, Me., on July 21, 1989. She was raised in Broomfield, Colo., where she attended Holy Family High School.

After finishing high school, Halligan studied politics and broadcast journalism at Regis University in Denver. The former insurance attorney then attended the University of Miami School of Law and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 2013.

Although she interned at the Miami-Dade County Public Defender’s Office, she chose to represent insurance companies at one of Cole, Scott & Kissane’s offices in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

According to South Florida court records viewed by Mother Jones, Halligan defended insurance companies during her time at CSK. She also represented home insurance companies against mostly minor corporate plaintiffs.

Before her college graduation, she competed twice in the Miss Colorado U.S.A. pageant. She reached the semifinals in 2009 before finishing third in 2010.

In a statement to the Washington Post, the former Miss Colorado hopeful confirmed she met Trump during an event at his golf club in West Palm Beach in November 2021. She believed she caught his attention when she arrived in a suit, which later led the POTUS to hire her as a lawyer amid the FBI’s probe into his handling of classified documents.

“I saw the same thing that I saw when I interned at the Innocence clinic: someone who was getting railroaded by the system,” she told the newspaper.

Halligan officially joined Trump’s personal legal team in 2022, the same year the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago residence.

Shortly after Trump’s second inauguration, the twice-elected president tasked Halligan with removing “improper ideology” from Smithsonian properties.

“It is the policy of my Administration to restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing,” part of Trump’s executive order read. “Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history.”

In an April interview with the Washington Post, Halligan said that “improper ideology would be weaponizing history.”

“We don’t need to overemphasize the negative to teach people that certain aspects of our nation’s history may have been bad,” she explained, adding, “And so I talked to the president about it, and suggested an executive order, and he gave me his blessing, and here we are.”

On September 19, Erik Siebert resigned as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after Trump told reporters he wanted him “out.”

The following day, Trump wrote a Truth Social post directed at Attorney General Pam Bondi, in which he talked about former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Senator Adam Schiff of California.

“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as h—, but nothing is going to be done,'” the statement read.

He said in another post that Halligan’s job would be to “get things moving,” and then he appointed her as interim U.S. attorney a few hours later.

However, her lack of prosecutorial experience prompted U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie to rule she is serving unlawfully, noting the appointment violated a federal statute limiting interim U.S. attorneys to 120 days in the role.

Thus, she moved to dismiss the criminal indictments against Comey and James.

“Because Ms. Halligan had no lawful authority to present the indictment, I will grant Mr. Comey’s motion and dismiss the indictment,” Currie wrote. “All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment, including securing and signing Mr. Comey’s indictment, were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.”

A week later, sources familiar with the cases alleged the Justice Department was considering seeking new indictments against Trump’s political foes and foregoing an appeal.