The ruling was the most robust effort to date to press the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, on why she has continued to serve as the U.S. attorney, despite an order throwing out her appointment.
Judge Novak gave Ms. Halligan seven days to respond to his demands to tell him why her repeated decisions to sign court papers as the district’s top prosecutor were not “a false or misleading statement” — a move, he suggested, that could lead to disciplinary measures.
Judge Novak’s order came some six weeks after Judge Cameron McGowan Currie found that the Justice Department had violated both the Constitution and laws governing the appointment of U.S. attorneys when it installed Ms. Halligan in the post, after Mr. Trump fired her predecessor.
