Rachel Maddow

All right, this involves both a scoop and something to watch out for tomorrow.

Back in September, the White House put pressure on Trump's hand-picked U.S.

attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia that he had to bring charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Tish James.

Trump's U.S.

attorney in Virginia quit in response to that pressure.

So Trump replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide who had never before prosecuted a case.

She actually did manage to bring charges against Comey and Tish James for a hot minute before a federal judge dismissed the charges, finding, among other things, that Lindsay Halligan had been illegally appointed to that job, that she was not, in fact, the U.S.

attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The Justice Department's appealing that, but apparently the administration has nevertheless been trying to resurrect the case against James Comey anyway, and now they have failed at it again.

Today, MSNOW's Carol Lennig and Ken Delaney were first to report that Trump's Justice Department has fired now the second in command under Lindsey Halligan at that U.S.

Attorney's Office because he also declined to pursue the Comey case.

And this is maybe not the best time for Lindsay Halligan to be without a second-in-command in that office because, get this, in a totally different case, a different federal judge has ordered that Lindsay Halligan has until tomorrow to explain to the court why she is still going around calling herself the U.S.

Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia when, legally and plainly, she is no such thing.

The judge has ordered that, quote, Ms.

Halligan shall further explain why her identification does not constitute a false or misleading statement.

The judge says that could, quote, constitute misconduct and be grounds for discipline.

Again, she has to explain why she's still calling herself a U.S.

attorney.

That response from Lindsay Halligan is due tomorrow.

Watch this space.