"1 "[Bo]th the Sixth Amendment and the Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct invite, indeed compel, prosecutors to alert a trial court to a defense attorney's potential or actual conflict." United States v. Cortez, 205 F. Supp. 3d 768, 775 (E.D. Va. 2016) (emphasis added) (Ellis, J.); see also United States v. Howard, 115 F.3d 1151, 1155 (4th Cir. 1997) (Wilkinson, C.J.) (noting that a district court "has an obligation to foresee problems over representation that might arise at trial and head them off beforehand")."
"Only, the filing is not disclosing conflicts that Halligan, the Trump personal defense attorney turned unlawfully appointed US Attorney who didn't identify her client at the arraignment, might have. Rather, in a bid to accelerate consideration of the loaner prosecutors' filter request ( which I wrote about here), it insinuates that Pat Fitzgerald has a possible conflict on this case. As it describes, some of the communications that (it all but confirms) Dan Richman designated as privileged back in 2019 include Fitzgerald."
A filing bearing Lindsey Halligan's name stresses early disclosure of attorney conflicts and cites the Sixth Amendment and Virginia professional rules requiring prosecutors to alert courts. The filing does not disclose potential conflicts Halligan might have and instead suggests a possible conflict involving Pat Fitzgerald by noting that some quarantined communications include Fitzgerald. The filing links those communications to Dan Richman's 2019 privilege designations and seeks expedited consideration of loaner prosecutors' filter request. The motion states the quarantined evidence contains communications between the defendant and several attorneys and that current lead defense counsel appears to be a party to some communications. The filing also alleges improper disclosure of classified information by lead defense counsel and cites the DOJ Inspector General report.
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