{"id":170886,"date":"2025-09-21T01:58:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T01:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/170886\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T01:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T01:58:06","slug":"trump-nominates-white-house-aide-to-be-top-us-prosecutor-for-office-probing-letitia-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/170886\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump nominates White House aide to be top US prosecutor for office probing Letitia James"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would be nominating senior White House aide Lindsey Halligan to serve as the top federal prosecutor for the Virginia office that was thrown into turmoil when its U.S. attorney was pushed out Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a social media post just after he departed the White House for an event at Mount Vernon, Trump wrote he was nominating Halligan as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, writing that she \u201cwill be Fair, Smart, and will provide, desperately needed, JUSTICE FOR ALL!\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement came as Trump pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi to move forward with pursuing cases<\/a> against some of his political opponents, part of a vow for retribution<\/a> that has been a theme of his return to the White House.<\/p>\n

The nomination would place one of the president\u2019s legal defenders in charge of an office in tumult over political pressure by administration officials to criminally charge New York Attorney General Letitia James<\/a>, a longtime foe of Trump, in a mortgage fraud investigation.<\/p>\n

Erik Siebert, who had been the office\u2019s top prosecutor, resigned<\/a> amid a push by Trump administration officials to bring charges in the investigation, which stems from allegations of paperwork discrepancies on James\u2019 Brooklyn townhouse and a Virginia home.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department has spent months investigating, and there\u2019s been no indication that prosecutors have managed to uncover any degree of incriminating evidence necessary to secure an indictment. James\u2019 lawyers have vigorously denied any allegations and characterized the investigation<\/a> as an act of political revenge. <\/p>\n

Halligan has been part of Trump\u2019s legal orbit for the last several years, including serving as one of his attorneys in the early days of the FBI\u2019s investigation into Trump\u2019s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She has more recently been enlisted in a White House effort to remove what the administration contends is \u201cimproper ideology\u201d from Smithsonian properties<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier Saturday, Trump posted to social media what appeared to be somewhat of an open letter to Bondi, saying he had \u201creviewed over 30 statements and posts\u201d that he characterized as criticizing his administration for a lack of action on investigations, including the one into James\u2019 dealings. Trump\u2019s message mentioned former FBI Director James Comey, Trump\u2019s longtime foil whom he fired during his first term amid the Russia election interference investigation. <\/p>\n

The FBI acknowledged this summer<\/a> that it was investigating Comey, who was interviewed by the Secret Service after an Instagram post<\/a> that Republicans insisted was a call for violence against Trump. Comey has said he did not mean the post as a threat and removed it once he realized how it was being interpreted.<\/p>\n

Asked as he departed the White House if he was criticizing Bondi, Trump said he just wanted action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to act fast \u2014 one way or the other,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey\u2019re guilty, they\u2019re not guilty \u2014 we have to act fast. If they\u2019re not guilty, that\u2019s fine. If they are guilty or if they should be charged, they should be charged. And we have to do it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In announcing Halligan\u2019s nomination soon after on social media, Trump said that Bondi was \u201cdoing a GREAT job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The selection of Halligan came just hours after another conservative lawyer, Mary \u201cMaggie\u201d Cleary, said in an email to staff that she had been named acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, according to a copy viewed by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this appointment was unexpected, I am humbled to be joining your ranks,\u201d Cleary, a conservative lawyer who has said she was falsely accused of being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, told employees in the email. <\/p>\n

While Siebert said in an email to colleagues Friday evening that he had submitted his resignation, Trump said in a social media post: \u201cHe didn\u2019t quit, I fired him!\u201d Trump noted he was backed by the state\u2019s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, adding: \u201cNext time let him go in as a Democrat, not a Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would be nominating senior White House aide Lindsey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,21283,3505,12,101623,6884,793,3073,94487,49710,102404,101625,2005,1999,3,3131,111,2798,28387,795,21,19,22,20,25,24,5148,800],"class_list":["post-170886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-conservatism","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-erik-siebert","tag-fraud","tag-general-news","tag-indictments","tag-james-comey","tag-letitia-james","tag-lindsey-halligan","tag-mark-warner","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-pam-bondi","tag-politics","tag-tim-kaine","tag-u-s-federal-bureau-of-investigation","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-virginia","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}