Jury in Halligan’s district acquits man of soliciting Trump’s assassination on social media

The Justice Department has taken a series of legal losses in President Donald Trump’s second term, including a shocking streak of failures even to get indictments past grand juries in cases of alleged assaults on Trump-backed law enforcement officers. Yet another data point emerged this week in a case that made it to trial but ended in a not guilty verdict against the U.S. attorney’s office currently led by Trump-installed prosecutor Lindsey Halligan.

Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia accused Peter Stinson of soliciting a crime of violence with social media posts. Among those listed in the superseding indictment against him are posts that said “One well placed shot would open up a whole new reality” and “He needs to be luigied” — an apparent reference to Luigi Mangione’s alleged shooting of health care executive Brian Thompson. (Mangione pleaded not guilty in New York, where his federal and state cases are pending.)