“Off the Record”
By 
Then my phone lit up with a notification. I glanced down at the message.
“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.
Lindsey Halligan—the top prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia—was texting me. As it turned out, she was texting me about a criminal case she is pursuing against one of the president’s perceived political enemies: New York Attorney General Letitia James.
So began my two-day text correspondence with the woman President Donald Trump had installed, in no small part, to bring the very prosecution she was now discussing with me by text message.
Over the next 33 hours, Halligan texted me again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
Through the whole of our correspondence, however, there is something Halligan never said: She never said a word suggesting that she was not “on the record.”
……
Even now, I remain mystified by Halligan’s texts to me. She is currently the most scrutinized prosecutor in the country, widely seen as hand-picked to prosecute her boss’s political enemies. Even the slightest misstep could be seized on and picked apart by defense counsel representing James, who analysts expect will seek dismissal of her charges based on selective or vindictive prosecution.
It’s not as if Halligan didn’t understand the rules of engagement with the press. For years, she worked as a member of Trump’s criminal defense team, which routinely courted media attention, despite accusing prosecutors of improper leaks. And now, as a prosecutor herself, she has accused former FBI director Comey of lying about whether he authorized a colleague at the bureau to serve as an anonymous source in news reports about an ongoing investigation. A central issue in that case, which Halligan reportedly also presented to the grand jury herself, concerns the nature of interactions between reporters and federal law enforcement sources.
And here’s the transcript: