U.S. Legal professional Erik Siebert knowledgeable staff at his workplace in Alexandria, Virginia, Friday that he intends to resign, in response to sources, after President Donald Trump mentioned he desires him out.
ABC Information has reported that Trump was expected to fire Siebert after investigators have been unable to search out incriminating proof of mortgage fraud towards New York Legal professional Common Letitia James, in response to sources.
Trump officers had pushed Siebert to bring charges towards James, regardless of investigators failing to search out clear proof that she dedicated against the law, sources mentioned.
“It appears to be like to me like she may be very responsible of one thing, however I actually do not know,” Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace on Friday.
When requested about Siebert, Trump mentioned he wished him “out” of the place as a result of Virginia’s two Democratic Senators supported his nomination. Trump nominated Siebert for the place in Could, and he has served because the interim U.S. legal professional since Trump’s inauguration.
“Once I noticed that he obtained authorised by these two males, I mentioned, pull it, as a result of he cannot be any good,” Trump mentioned. “Once I discovered that they voted for him, I mentioned, I do not actually need him.”
Siebert’s departure leaves one of many nation’s most essential U.S. legal professional’s workplaces and not using a chief, in response to sources, as Siebert’s deputy has already left her place and intends to proceed work within the workplace as a line prosecutor. Along with her place vacant, there may be at present no reply to who particularly will take over the workplace and whether or not any of its attorneys have any authority to proceed common prosecutorial exercise.
Erik Siebert, interim U.S. Legal professional for the japanese district of Virginia, speaks throughout a information convention about an MS-13 gang chief who was arrested in an operation by the Virginia Homeland Safety Job Pressure, on the Manassas FBI Area Workplace, March 27, 2025, in Manassas, Va.
Rod Lamkey/AP
The investigation into James started in April when Invoice Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Company, despatched the Division of Justice a felony referral alleging that James falsified data associated to her 2023 buy of a house in Virginia.
After investigating the allegations for 5 months and interviewing 15 witnesses, investigators have been unable to search out clear proof that James knowingly falsified data to acquire higher mortgage phrases, ABC Information first reported earlier this week.
James has denied wrongdoing, and her lawyer, in a press release on Friday, referred to as the reported firing of Siebert a “brazen assault on the rule of legislation.”
“Firing individuals till he finds somebody who will bend the legislation to hold out his revenge has been the President’s sample — and it is unlawful,” Abbe Lowell mentioned Friday morning in a press release to ABC Information. “Punishing this prosecutor, a Trump appointee, for doing his job sends a transparent and chilling message that anybody who dares uphold the legislation over politics will face the identical destiny.”
The forcing out of Siebert as a result of he refused to cost one in every of Trump’s political rivals marks an escalation in what the president’s critics have referred to as a retribution marketing campaign, with ongoing investigations additionally concentrating on Sen. Adam Schiff and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
Trump has repeatedly accused James — who efficiently introduced a civil fraud case towards him final yr and leads a number of lawsuits difficult his administration’s insurance policies — of concentrating on him for political causes, calling her “biased and corrupt.”
Legal professional Common Letitia James sits within the courtroom through the civil fraud trial of former President Donald Trump at New York Supreme Court docket, Jan. 11, 2024, in New York.
Seth Wenig/Pool/Getty Photos
James is “a horror present who ran on the premise that she was going to get Trump earlier than she even knew something about me,” Trump mentioned throughout his civil fraud trial in 2023. “This has to do with election interference, plain and easy. Now we have a corrupt legal professional common on this state.”
Following a three-month trial, a New York decide concluded that Trump and his household had dedicated a decade of business fraud by overstating the worth of their properties to get favorable mortgage phrases, fining Trump and his sons almost half a billion {dollars}. An appeals court docket subsequently tossed the monetary penalty however upheld the discovering that Trump dedicated fraud.
A former police officer with Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Division, Siebert graduated from legislation college in 2009 and has labored as an assistant United States legal professional within the Jap District of Virginia since 2010. Along with serving as a line prosecutor, Siebert headed the workplace’s organized drug crime activity drive and supervised the workplace’s Richmond division from 2019 to 2024.
Siebert started serving because the interim U.S. legal professional on Jan. 21 after the late Jessica Aber, who ran the workplace from 2021-25, resigned following President Trump’s inauguration. Each of Virginia’s Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, beneficial Siebert to Trump in April, and Trump nominated him for the place in Could.
“Mr. Siebert has devoted his profession to defending public security, from his work with the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Division to his dealing with of violent crimes and firearms trafficking as a line Assistant U.S. Legal professional within the Jap District of Virginia. Along with his expertise and dedication to service, Mr. Siebert is provided to deal with the challenges and essential obligations related to this place,” Warner and Kaine mentioned in a press release in Could, pledging to help his nomination.
