Florida Bar Retreats From Statement Saying Lindsey Halligan Was Under Scrutiny

The Florida bar said that it had “erroneously” made that assertion, disclosed in a letter last month, and that no investigation into Ms. Halligan was pending.

The Florida Bar, which examines attorney conduct in the state, retreated on Friday from its earlier assertion that it was investigating Lindsey Halligan, a former U.S. attorney in Virginia who brought politically charged cases against some of President Trump’s foes.

The bar, in a letter dated Feb. 4, told a nonprofit organization called Campaign for Accountability that it had opened an investigation after the group filed complaints about Ms. Halligan related to her work as a federal prosecutor.

The letter said: “We are aware of these developments and have been monitoring them closely. We already have an investigation pending.”

The New York Times and other news organizations reported on the letter, and the Florida Bar told outlets like CBS News that “it does not provide comment on active cases.”

But on Friday, a spokeswoman for the bar, Jennifer Krell Davis, said that in writing the letter, her organization had “erroneously” stated “that there is a pending bar investigation” of Ms. Halligan.

“There is no such pending bar investigation,” Ms. Davis said in a statement, adding that her organization had received a complaint against Ms. Halligan, and “consistent with standard practice, the bar is monitoring the ongoing legal proceedings underlying the complaint.”

After Ms. Davis’s statement was sent, Ms. Halligan texted a New York Times reporter, stating that the article published in the outlet a day earlier was erroneous. She added that the bar had clarified that no investigation was pending.

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Ms. Davis declined to comment further when asked why the bar had taken a day to determine that the statement was erroneous, what led to the determination and whether she had been contacted by Trump administration officials.

After the letter was disclosed on Thursday, Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, responded on social media, saying, “It’s time to end partisan law-fare and re-evaluate the need for a unified Florida Bar.”

And on Friday, responding to the bar’s backpedaling, Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X that the “‘investigation’ of Lindsey Halligan is totally fake news.”

“Lindsey not only did nothing wrong — she did a great job!” Ms. Bondi wrote.

The question of ethics investigations into Trump administration lawyers drew attention earlier this week when the Justice Department issued a proposal saying it would seek to pre-empt state bar investigations into ethics complaints against department lawyers.

Some lawyers considered that action a veiled threat to usurp the authority of state courts and bar disciplinary bodies to police the conduct of lawyers.

Campaign for Accountability had filed complaints in Florida and Virginia against Ms. Halligan over her work as an interim U.S. attorney last fall. While in office, she convinced grand juries to indict the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and New York’s attorney general, Letitia James.

Both indictments were later thrown out by a judge who found that Ms. Halligan’s appointment was unlawful. Other federal judges raised questions about statements Ms. Halligan made to grand jurors, and questioned her signing of court documents as U.S. attorney even after a judge had ruled her appointment invalid.

The executive director of Campaign for Accountability, Michelle Kuppersmith, said on Friday that she had not heard directly from the Florida Bar, but questioned its latest remarks.

“It’s hard to reconcile this latest statement with the bar counsel’s previous letter saying there is an investigation pending,” she said. “If there is no longer an investigation into Halligan, the question is why not, given that three judges indicated she engaged in conduct that appears to violate ethics rules.”

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