New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded “not guilty” at her arraignment Friday in Norfolk, Virginia, marking the second time this month a Justice Department lawyer admitted in court they were still figuring out what evidence exists to support criminal charges in a case brought at the behest of President Donald Trump.
“I am going through the discovery right now,” said assistant U.S. attorney Roger Keller Jr., who was until Tuesday a DOJ lawyer in Missouri defending the government from lawsuits about civil disputes.
Normally, prosecutors fully investigate a case before pursuing an indictment and know well exactly what evidence exists to support criminal charges. However, this case is anything but normal. White House aide-turned-prosecutor Lindsey Halligan replaced a U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who resisted presidential pressure to have the Justice Department exact vengeance on Trump foes including James — who, as New York attorney general, won a civil suit against Trump, his sons and the Trump organization (that was later overturned).
Halligan has taken the same approach in this case as she did with former FBI Director James Comey, who was indicted last month: presenting the case herself before a grand jury, then recruiting a prosecutor from outside her newly assumed office to take on the case with little-to-no preparation. Earlier this month, two prosecutors from North Carolina appeared in Comey’s case the day before his arraignment — and stunned the Alexandria federal judge in court when one of them, Tyler Lemons, claimed that “we’re just getting our hands around discovery.”
But that situation has already caused some tension in U.S. District Judge Jamar Walker’s courtroom in Norfolk.
Walker quickly shot down Keller’s request to have until Nov. 14 to turn over all the evidence the government claims to have against James, with the judge chiding prosecutors that waiting nearly a month after an indictment “is not consistent with how we operate here.” Walker noted that it’s “certainly customary” for prosecutors to show up to an arraignment ready to turn over their first batch of evidence to defense lawyers.
When Keller suggested a trial could take two weeks, the judge rejected it outright. When Keller said the case could involve eight to 10 witnesses, James’ lawyer Abbe Lowell said he’d “be shocked” if there actually were that many. And when the judge asked whether the government was prepared to let James get back to her government office in New York rather than seek to keep her behind bars pending trial, he seemed annoyed when the prosecutor couldn’t even accurately answer whether the DOJ had received the standard pretrial services report.
“We have not, your honor,” Keller said, suddenly turning to Halligan to his right. “Oh, we have?”
“Do you need a moment?” the judge inquired.
Halligan remained quiet throughout the hearing. She was surrounded by a four-man team of agents from the U.S. Marshals Service.
The court hearing Friday lasted less than an hour, but previewed what is shaping up to be a fast-moving case that’s barreling toward a possible one-week trial starting Jan. 26 next year. There will be a fight over Halligan’s credentials, a court battle within a court battle that will be exported out of the district to the same South Carolina federal judge who’s now considering an identical challenge in Comey’s case.
“I want to keep this moving,” Walker told lawyers on both sides, stressing that newcomers to this part of Virginia should quickly familiarize themselves with the local rules.
What comes next is a flurry of court filings and a pair of hearings in November, when the judge is slated to consider the defense team’s claims that James is the victim of a vindictive and selective prosecution — a charge that will likely point to Trump’s public comments stating in no uncertain terms that he appointed Halligan to the role with the expectation that she would pursue cases against Comey and James.
Speaking to a supportive crowd outside the courthouse late Friday morning, James decried “this justice system, which has been used as a tool of revenge.” The scene was a distorted echo of the very same scenes that would play out at a Manhattan state courthouse in the fall of 2023, when Trump would make speeches claiming that James — who had promised to pursue a case against Trump during her election campaign — had “weaponized” the very same justice system against him and his company.
Except that in that other case, the judge concluded after a lengthy trial that Trump committed bank fraud, a finding that was later countered on appeal.
“I’m here to say that my work and my job and all that I do all throughout my public career, I’ve stood up for the rights of New Yorkers and Americans, and I will not be deterred,” James said.