US attorney inquiring into Trump critics resigns after president says ‘I want him out’
US attorney tasked with inquiring into Trump critics resigns after president says ‘I want him out’
(32 minutes later)
Erik Siebert leaving his position amid pressure from officials over Letitia James and James Comey investigations
Erik Siebert leaving after his investigation finds insufficient evidence to charge New York’a attorney general Letitia James with a crime
The US attorney whose office has been investigating mortgage fraud allegations against Letitia James, the New York attorney general, is resigning under pressure from the Trump administration, two people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press on Friday.
The federal prosecutor for the eastern district of Virginia resigned Friday under intense pressure from Donald Trump, after his office determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence to charge New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, a political rival of the president, with a crime.
Erik Siebert is leaving his position amid a push by Trump administration officials to bring criminal charges against the perceived adversary of the president.
Erik Siebert told colleagues he was resigning in a letter sent Friday, NBC News reported. Hours earlier, Trump bluntly told reporters in the Oval Office: “I want him out.” The president claimed he soured on Siebert because Virginia’s two Democratic senators had endorsed his nomination, but also claimed that James “is very guilty of something”. ABC News reported earlier on Friday that Trump decided to fire Siebert after he failed to obtain an indictment against James.
In an email to prosecutors obtained by the New York Times, Siebert wrote that he had submitted his resignation.
In 2024, James filed a civil lawsuit against Trump and his company that resulted in a significant financial penalty. That penalty was thrown out in August by an appeals court that upheld a judge’s finding that Trump had engaged in fraud by exaggerating his wealth for decades.
It was not immediately clear who would replace Siebert, who was nominated by Trump to the top job in the office after having worked there for more than a decade.
After a five-month investigation, officials did not find enough clear evidence to charge James with a crime, ABC News reported earlier this week. Trump nominated Siebert, who worked since 2010 as an assistant US attorney in that office, for the position in May.
It comes shortly after Trump said Siebert should be removed as head of the eastern district of Virginia US office. Siebert’s top deputy, Maya Song, is also leaving her position as first assistant US attorney and will work as a line prosecutor, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
The investigation centered on the allegation that James falsely said she was going to use a home she purchased in Virginia as her primary residence. While one document indicated James intended to use the home as her primary residence, others in the transaction show James clearly indicating she intended to use it as a second home.
“Yeah, I want him out,” Trump said of Siebert earlier Friday.
Ed Martin, a former January 6 defendant lawyer who is leading the justice department effort to target Trump’s political rivals, pressured prosecutors to seek an indictment, according to ABC News. Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a staunch Trump ally, who criminally referred James, had urged Trump to fire Siebert, according to ABC.
The move to replace Siebert, a career prosecutor in the prestigious eastern district of Virginia, was described by a person who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Pulte also referred California senator Adam Schiff, another political rival of Trump, and the Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook for mortgage fraud. The allegations in both of those cases appear similarly thin.
The status of any leadership change remained unclear as no public announcement had been made by Friday afternoon. Spokespeople for Seibert’s office and the justice department declined to comment.
The justice department has long held a level of independence from the White House, an arms length seen as necessary to give Americans confidence its prosecutors and other attorneys are making enforcement decisions based on facts and not politics. Trump has upended that norm, firing career attorneys and FBI agents who worked on January 6 cases.
The development comes as Trump administration officials have been aggressively pursuing allegations against James arising from alleged paperwork discrepancies on her Brooklyn townhouse and a Virginia home. The justice department has spent months conducting the investigation but has yet to bring charges, and there has been no indication that prosecutors have managed to uncover any degree of incriminating evidence necessary to secure an indictment.
Those fired include Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a career prosecutor who worked on some of the highest-profile cases in the southern district of New York. Maurene Comey, who was not given a reason for her firing, sued the Trump administration this week.
To the extent the effort to replace Siebert is designed to hasten criminal charges, the move is likely to deepen concerns that the department – already investigating other public figures Donald Trump regards as foes – is being weaponized by a White House seeking to have its prosecutorial powers used for purposes of retribution.
James’s lawyers have vigorously denied any allegations and characterized the investigation as an act of political revenge.
ABC News was first to report that officials aligned with the president were pressuring prosecutors to bring charges and that the Republican administration was preparing to oust Siebert, who was nominated by Trump to the top job in the office after having worked there for more than a decade.
James has long been a particular source of outrage for Trump, in part because of a civil lawsuit she filed against him and his company that resulted in a massive financial penalty. That penalty was thrown out in August by an appeals court that narrowly upheld a judge’s finding that Trump had engaged in fraud by exaggerating his wealth for decades.
The case has taken a series of unorthodox turns. It emerged in August that Ed Martin, who helms the justice department’s weaponization working group and is helping coordinate the investigation, had sent a letter urging James to resign from office “as an act of good faith” after starting his mortgage fraud investigation of her. He later turned up outside James’s Brooklyn townhouse in a “Columbo” style trench coat. A New York Post writer at the scene observed him tell a neighbor: “I’m just looking at houses, interesting houses. It’s an important house.”
James’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told Martin in a letter that the request for James’s resignation defied justice department standards and codes of professional responsibility and legal ethics.
The justice department “has firm policies against using investigations and against using prosecutorial power for achieving political ends”, Lowell wrote. “This is ever more the case when that demand is made to seek political revenge against a public official in the opposite party.”
A former District of Columbia police officer, Siebert joined the eastern district of Virginia – an elite justice department prosecution office with a history of sophisticated national security and criminal cases – in 2010. He was nominated to the role of US attorney by Trump in May with the backing of the state’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
The office has separately been involved in investigating matters related to the years-old investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s victorious 2016 presidential campaign, a longstanding grievance of the president. No charges have been announced as part of that work.
Although US attorneys are presidential appointees, they are rarely fired. But the Trump administration has repeatedly disregarded norms and traditions meant to insulate justice department prosecutors from White House political influence. Prosecutors and other support personnel who worked on the special counsel team of Jack Smith that investigated and prosecuted Trump have been fired, as was Maurene Comey, whose father, former FBI director James Comey, was terminated by Trump months into his first presidency amid the Russia election interference investigation.
Martin’s investigation stems from a letter Federal Housing Finance Agency director William Pulte sent to attorney general Pam Bondi in April asking her to investigate and consider prosecuting James, alleging she had “falsified bank documents and property records”.
Pulte, whose agency regulates mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cited “media reports” claiming James had falsely listed a Virginia home as her principal residence, and he suggested she may have been trying to avoid higher interest rates that often apply to second homes.
Records show James was listed as a co-borrower on a house her niece was buying in 2023. Lowell said records and correspondence easily disproved Pulte’s allegation. While James signed a power-of-attorney form that, Lowell said, “mistakenly stated the property to be Ms James’s principal residence” she sent an email to her mortgage loan broker around the same time that made clear, the property “WILL NOT be my primary residence”.
