Trump DOJ Prosecutor Sent Journalist Dozens of Texts -- Then Tried to Claim 'Off the Record'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: MEDIAite

Oct 20th, 2025, 9:02 pm


U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan sent Lawfare Senior Editor Anna Bower dozens of text messages earlier this month to complain about her reporting — and then attempted to claim after the fact that the conversation was off the record. It was most certainly not off the record, and on Monday evening, Bower published screenshots of their texts.

In her article, Bower described how on the afternoon of Saturday, October 11, she got a new message alert on Signal — the same app where Trump administration officials infamously shared attack plans on a group chat — that purported to be from Halligan.

Bower initially “assumed the exchange was a hoax,” she wrote, because “while it is not unusual for lawyers to reach out to me about my reporting or commentary, it is highly unusual for a U.S. attorney to do so regarding an ongoing prosecution—particularly in a high-profile case in which her conduct is already the subject of immense public scrutiny.”

It was not a hoax, and Halligan sent her dozens of messages before attempting to claim after the fact that their conversation had been off the record.

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/lawcrime/trump-doj-prosecutor-sent-journalist-dozens-of-texts-then-tried-to-claim-off-the-record/

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Link to tweet

Anna Bower
@AnnaBower
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EXCLUSIVE: One Saturday afternoon in October, my phone lit up with a notification.

I glanced down at the message.

“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.

So began my text exchange with the top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia.

https://lawfaremedia.org/article/anna--lindsey-halligan-here
Image
6:12 PM · Oct 20, 2025

Link to Anna Bower article - https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna--lindsey-halligan-here

[UpInArms]

1. Wowzer, what a stupid collection of cells

At 4:10 p.m., she texted me: “By the way—everything I ever sent you is off record. You’re not a journalist so it’s weird saying that but just letting you know.”

I responded: “I’m sorry, but that’s not how this works. You don’t get to say that in retrospect.”

Halligan was unpersuaded: “Yes, I do. Off record.”

“I am really sorry. I would have been happy to speak with you on an off the record basis had you asked,” I said. “But you didn’t ask, and I still haven’t agreed to speak on that basis. Do you have any further comment for the story?

To my surprise, she kept going: “It’s obvious the whole convo is off record. There’s disappearing messages and it’s on signal. What is your story? You never told me about a story.”

Does she really believe that stuff just disappears?

[Mr.WeRP]

4. Signal auto-deletes after a time period set by the sender

But it doesn’t prevent a recipient from saving them. This woman acting (illegally) as a prosecutor is DUMB AF on many levels.

[AverageOldGuy]

2. Link to the full LawFare article

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna--lindsey-halligan-here

[Mr.WeRP]

3. Incompetence reigns

[Iggo]

5. I learned that from watching "All The President's Men" back in nineteen diggity two.

[patphil]

6. I get the feeling tht Lindsey Halligan is way over her head in the James "prosecution".

I don't see any purpose other than an amateur attempt to intimidate Anna Bower.
The whole "you're not getting the story right, but I'm not going to tell you where you went wrong" thing is plainly idiotic.
But then she's a Trump attorney, so competence isn't her strong suit.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

7. Being an incompetent attorney seems to be a prerequisite for Been A Dick Donald's admin.

Last edited Tue Oct 21, 2025, 12:02 PM - Edit history (1)

and she's proving this in spades.

[BattleRow]

8. Her "spades" have clearly gotten Trumped.

[NYC Liberal]

10. She's all they've got.

Clearly anyone competent has jumped ship so they have to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

Pirro tried and failed three times to get an indictment for a woman accused of assaulting an FBI officer. Then she had to drop it to a misdemeanor charge that didn’t require a grand jury. Then she lost in the trial.

[FakeNoose]

11. No competent lawyer wants to lose his/her license for doing Chump's evil bidding

That's why most of them have quit, or been fired.

Whether Halligan quits, gets fired, or loses her license will be the next chapter in this horror story.

[Marie Marie]

12. Stupid and incompetent - yes definitely. But she is eye candy for the lecherous pig in the WH.

[patphil]

14. Yes, he looks for a certain kind of woman.

[flashman13]

9. I am going to post this in depth report on this story.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Charles Pierce sums it up well:

The U.S. Attorney Tasked With Going After Letitia James Has Screwed Up Her Own Case in a Truly Mortifying Way

In a relatively sane administration, Lindsey Halligan would have been updating her resume at a nearby Starbucks two days ago.

One day in the future, I hope they gather all the lawyers employed by the two Trump administrations and administer that Scientology test where you hold the two metal things while someone sizes you up for a donation. This is because administering a bar exam to the endless parade of fools and dolts marching out of the Department of Justice in order to do battle with the Constitution, the rule of law, English syntax, and common sense would be like teaching opera to a goat. For example, our old friend Lindsey Halligan, the button-person tasked with doing in Letitia James, already has managed to screw up her own case in as embarrassing a fashion as can be imagined. From Lawfare:
...
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a69110789/lindsey-halligan-texts-anna-bower/