The Justice Department in a court filing Tuesday defended Lindsey Halligan's status as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

U.S. District Judge for the District of South Carolina Cameron Currie ruled in November that Halligan was unlawfully appointed to her role and ordered that the cases she brought against former FBI Director James Comey and Letitia James be dismissed. 

The department is appealing both dismissals to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Last week, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, David Novak, issued an unprompted court order for Halligan to write an explanation to the court for her continued representation as the U.S. attorney for the district, and why that "does not constitute a false or misleading statement," which he suggested could be grounds for disciplinary proceedings, Fox News reported.

Novak also said that Currie's determination on the unlawful nature of Halligan's appointment represents "binding precedent in this district" and should not be ignored.

On Tuesday, Halligan, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche disputed the claims.

"The Court’s thinly veiled threat to use attorney discipline to cudgel the Executive Branch into conforming its legal position in all criminal prosecutions to the views of a single district judge is a gross abuse of power and an affront to the separation of powers," they said.

"Compounding those legal errors, the Court fails even to correctly identify the date of the indictment in this case – a factual mistake that forecloses the premise of misconduct on which the Court’s inquiry is based," they also argued. 

The three prosecutors said that Halligan's identification "is correct and consistent with the Department of Justice’s internal guidance, and at minimum reflects a contested legal position that the United States is entitled to maintain notwithstanding a single district judge’s contrary view."

They added that Currie's determination on the validity of Halligan's appointment regarding Comey's and James's criminal cases is not binding, and it does not preclude the DOJ from challenging that ruling or Halligan from legitimately leading the U.S. attorney's office on other cases and matters.

"A contested legal position does not become a factual misrepresentation simply because one district judge has rejected it," the DOJ said Tuesday. "In any event, this Court has no authority to strike Ms. Halligan’s title from the Government’s signature block."

"The bottom line is that Ms. Halligan has not ‘misrepresented’ anything and the Court is flat wrong to suggest that any change to the Government’s signature block is warranted in this or any other case – particularly where that suggestion rests on an objectively incorrect chronology," they said in the filing.

Halligan, who was President Trump's personal lawyer, was picked for her role in the fall, despite having no prosecutorial experience.

"As Attorney General Bondi and President Trump know well, Lindsey Halligan is an effective U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting violent crime at the hands of illegal aliens, prosecuting the alleged distribution by a Democrat operative of child sexual abuse material, and even prosecuting alleged money laundering by a Venezuelan national, which is exactly why her opponents want to stop her," a DOJ spokesperson told Fox News.

Also on Tuesday, longtime federal prosecutor Robert McBride, who was the second-highest-ranking U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, was dismissed from his role amid broader disagreements with DOJ, unnamed sources told the media outlet.