The Justice Department has seized on a lack of explicit instruction from a federal judge to keep Lindsey Halligan in place for now.

The request to dismiss the case came after Lindsey Halligan acknowledged she had never shown a final version of the indictment to the entire grand jury for a vote.

© Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

Grand jurors have to vote on indictments to approve them, but a prosecutor told the judge in the case that only the foreperson formally approved the second charging document, a move that could cripple the case.

© Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images