The federal prosecutor at the center of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James’ criminal cases had a classy clapback for a CNN commentator — who mocked her on air as “one of ‘The Apprentice’ girls” who looks “just like Hope Hicks.”
Lindsey Halligan, the interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, took aim at Stacy Schneider — a fellow attorney who also notably starred on President Trump’s hit reality TV show — for claiming Halligan was nothing more than just a pretty face.
“When women like Stacy Schneider criticize me based on appearance, it reinforces my belief in supporting and empowering women instead,” Halligan told The Post in a statement Tuesday. “Attempts by other women to tear us down only strengthens my resolve to lift us up.”
Halligan’s prosecutions of Trump foes were the subject of heated debate between Schneider, a New York-based attorney and CNN legal commentator, and conservative panelist Scott Jennings on the network’s “NewsNight” Monday.
“You know what’s so funny? Lindsay Halligan to me looks just like Hope Hicks, his former aide from the Trump administration, with the big flowing, long hair and the same kind of makeup and the same look,” Schneider said. “She looks like one of ‘The Apprentice’ girls. It’s bizarre.”
“Does that make someone a bad lawyer?” Jennings shot back, defending Halligan, a former pageant queen and lawyer who helped Trump’s defense team against former special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case in Florida.
“No, makes ’em a good lawyer, look at me,” Schneider returned fire, laughing. “I’m a good lawyer.”
“I don’t understand why that’s a relevant comment, what she looks like,” Jennings said.
“It’s relevant because it’s kind of funny that he puts in a prosecutor who has never prosecuted a case in a day in her life — so yes, I’m alluding to her looks,” Schneider responded.
“Central casting,” host Abby Phillip muttered in agreement.
Halligan never appeared on “The Apprentice.”
Schneider, meanwhile, remains the only criminal defense attorney to ever be cast on the hit NBC show — but she wasn’t ready for primetime at the Trump Organization as Donald Trump fired her during the second episode of the show’s fifth season in 2006.
Both she and one of her teammates, Jose “Pepi” Diaz, were let go by the future 45th and 47th commander-in-chief for failing to promote Gillette’s new five-blade Fusion Power razor via a text message marketing campaign.
Trump erupted that the leader of team Synergy, Brent Buckman, had been “a disaster” — but only chose to fire Schneider and Diaz.
“I don’t think you’ll last, Brent; in fact, I’m pretty sure you’re going to be gone pretty quickly. But the team leader didn’t lead. You lost the respect of various people in the team. And Pepe, I have to say that you also are fired.”
Schneider, who specializes in criminal and family law, went on to pen the book “He Had It Coming: How To Outsmart Your Husband and Win Your Divorce” in 2008 and has provided legal commentary on Fox News, Fox Business News, CNN, HLN, and Court TV, among other stations.
Last year, she authored critical insights during Trump’s “hush money” trial in Manhattan about the strengths and weaknesses of District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case — including missed opportunities for more witness testimony proving that the former president “intended to falsify his business records.”
The legal eagle clarified her comments about Halligan in a follow-up statement.
“I was complimenting her appearance, but I was criticizing the fact that she never tried a case before,” she said. “My comment about the ‘Apprentice girls’ was meant to be a compliment to Lindsey Halligan because many of them were known to be very attractive.”
Halligan worked in the White House before being tapped as interim US attorney, which has also been the subject of court hearings last week in the Eastern District of Virginia — with Democratic powerhouse lawyer Abbe Lowell seeking to get her appointment ruled as unconstitutional.
Things will be heating up again for Halligan on Wednesday, with a hearing in Alexandria, Va., federal court over Comey’s motion to throw out charges against him for allegedly lying to Congress.
Halligan indicted Comey on Sept. 25 for obstruction of justice and making false statements to US senators during a September 2020 congressional hearing about purportedly not authorizing leaks of FBI investigative information to the press.
James, meanwhile, was hit with an indictment on Oct. 9 brought by Halligan over allegedly false statements she made to secure more favorable loan terms on a Norfolk, Va., home — which the prosecutor identified as her “principal residence” while still residing in the Big Apple.
Both have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go to trial in January 2026.
