Both of the top federal prosecutors in Virginia resigning within a month of each other, reportedly after facing pressure from the Trump administration, is cause for alarm, Fairfax County’s Democratic supervisors say.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay and his Democratic colleagues urged Congress and judges in the Eastern District of Virginia to intervene after interim U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert resigned on Friday (Sept. 19) under circumstances they argued “appear politically motivated, and malicious.”
“Our residents deserve federal partners who are committed to public safety, not political grandstanding and meritless prosecutions,” the supervisors said in a joint statement. “As leaders of Fairfax County, we call on our members of Congress and the judges of the Eastern District of Virginia to stop President Trump from turning the U.S. Attorney’s office into his personal law firm. The safety and security of our community, and the rule of law, demand nothing less.”
Released yesterday (Monday), the statement was signed by eight current supervisors with the exception of Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, the board’s only Republican.
The Braddock District seat remains empty for now after James Walkinshaw was elected to Congress and subsequently resigned earlier this month.
According to ABC News, President Donald Trump was planning to fire Siebert after the prosecutor declined to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on allegations of mortgage fraud.
The Justice Department has spent months investigating James over alleged paperwork issues related to her Brooklyn townhouse and a home she helped her niece buy in Norfolk in 2023. James has denied the allegations, with her attorney characterizing the investigation as an act of “political revenge” after James successfully prosecuted Trump for civil fraud last year.
When prosecutors failed to find evidence that James had knowingly falsified records, Trump and officials in his administration pressured Siebert’s office to pursue a more aggressive investigation, ABC News reported.
Before Siebert formally resigned, Trump told reporters on Friday that he wanted him “out,” claiming that he had soured on the prosecutor because Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, supported his nomination.
In their statement, McKay, Vice Chair Kathy Smith (Sully), and supervisors Walter Alcorn (Hunter Mill), Jimmy Bierman (Dranesville), Rodney Lusk (Franconia), Dalia Palchik (Providence), Dan Storck (Mount Vernon) and Andres Jimenez (Mason) pointed to Trump’s comments as evidence that Siebert’s resignation resulted from political pressure.
“President Trump’s reported pressuring of Interim U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert to resign because he failed to find evidence against the President’s political enemies, is an attack on the rule of law, and one that threatens the well-being of our community,” they wrote.
Nominated by Trump to become the next U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in May, Siebert had worked in the office for more than a decade. Never confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he was in line to succeed Jessica Aber, who stepped down when Trump took office in January and died at her home in Alexandria on March 22.
Siebert’s departure came less than a month after Todd Gilbert resigned as interim U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia on Aug. 20. The White House reportedly told Gilbert to resign or be fired after refusing to replace and then creating a new position for a prosecutor who’d served under a Biden appointee.
While noting that Fairfax County isn’t represented by the Western District, the two resignations suggest a “troubling” pattern, the supervisors said.
The supervisors didn’t specify what steps they hope to see Congress take, but Warner and Kaine as well as Rep. Don Beyer had already issued statements of their own criticizing Trump for reportedly pressuring Siebert to resign.
“Donald Trump hates the rule of law and is making all of us less safe by firing seasoned professionals, to replace them with goons and yes men who will bend the law to his whim,” said Beyer, whose district includes most of eastern Fairfax County. “This is corrupt as hell.”
Kaine and Warner called Siebert “an ethical prosecutor,” noting that they had recommended him to Trump for the U.S. attorney post.
“The Eastern District of Virginia is at the forefront of significant cases essential to our national security, and just like any court in America, should be focused on justice instead of a thin-skinned president’s vendettas,” the senators said.
Lindsey Halligan, a senior aide to Trump who previously represented him as a defense lawyer, was sworn in yesterday as the new interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — a position she can hold for up to 120 days unless she’s confirmed or her appointment is extended by the district court’s judges, according to CBS News.
The U.S. attorney role for the Western District is currently being filled on an interim basis by Robert Tracci, who was elected for a term as Albemarle County’s top prosecutor before getting ousted by a progressive Democrat in 2019.
Screenshot via Google Maps
