“In response to an inquiry from a complainant, The Florida Bar wrote a letter to the complainant erroneously stating that there is a pending Bar investigation of member Lindsay Halligan,” Florida Bar spokeswoman Jennifer Krell Davis said.

“There is no such pending Bar investigation of Lindsay Halligan,” she added. “In this case, The Florida Bar received a complaint against Lindsay Halligan and, consistent with standard practice, the Bar is monitoring the ongoing legal proceedings underlying the complaint.”

The complainant was the Campaign for Accountability, which argued that Halligan should face disciplinary action for her involvement in the federal prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The indictments against Comey and James were ultimately dismissed last fall, and Halligan resigned in January due to increasing pressure from federal judges who deemed her appointment by President Donald Trump unlawful.

Before she was sworn into office as the top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia in September, Halligan was a longtime personal attorney for Trump with no prior experience prosecuting cases.

The watchdog filed complaints concerning Halligan with the Florida and Virginia bar associations.

The Campaign for Accountability criticized the Florida Bar for backtracking on its earlier statement that an ethics investigation into the former U.S. attorney was underway.

“CfA has not heard directly from the Florida Bar, but it’s hard to reconcile this latest statement with the bar counsel’s previous letter saying there is an investigation pending,” Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith 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.”

The latest news comes after state bar associations were targeted in a new policy proposed by the Department of Justice.

The rule grants the department the right to review ethics allegations against its former and current attorneys first before state bar disciplinary authorities can conduct their own investigations. During the proposed process, per the policy, the DOJ would ask states to “suspend any parallel investigations” until its review is completed.

DOJ MOVES TO BLOCK STATE ETHICS INVESTIGATIONS AGAINST ITS ATTORNEYS

The department warned it would “take appropriate action” to enforce the regulation if it’s finalized, accusing the state bars of weaponizing their complaint processes against federal attorneys.

A DOJ spokesperson later clarified the rule change would serve as a request to suspend or pause, not terminate, any state bar investigation to allow the department time to conduct its own review of attorney conduct.