White House seeks Senate confirmation for Lindsey Halligan as US attorney

The White House is seeking Senate confirmation for Lindsey Halligan as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.Halligan submitted her confirmation questionnaire to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, MS NOW reported.
 “She’s the president’s nominee,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the new outlet. “It is our hope that she is confirmed and submitting her questionnaire is a part of that process.”
Two unnamed sources told MS Now that Halligan’s submission requires the Senate Judiciary Committee to send her written questions within seven days as the next step in her confirmation process. While there is not a deadline for Halligan to respond, her nomination cannot proceed until her answers are received.
Halligan working through the confirmation process comes after a federal judge dismissed indictments that she obtained against New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey, finding that she was improperly appointed by President Trump and lacked the legal authority to prosecute anyone.
Trump first named Halligan the acting top prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia on September 22, which was after the previous interim U.S. attorney, Erik Siebert, did not pursue an indictment of Comey or James. Later that month, Trump formally nominated Halligan to serve in the post on a permanent basis, but had not taken further steps to advance her nomination.
When asked about Halligan’s nomination on Thursday, Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine told reporters that she had not reached out to either his or fellow Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner’s offices.
“It would seem like, you want Senate confirmation, you might reach out. It’s been weeks, maybe months. There’s been no outreach,” Kaine said. “They just want to do an end-run around the Senate completely.”
The Senate has a tradition known as the “blue slip” process, through which home-state senators for a nominee’s office can block their nomination from progressing to a committee or floor vote.

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