Days after being fired, the top national security prosecutor in Virginia’s eastern district taped a letter outside his former office accusing top Justice Department officials of being “more concerned” with going after President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies than protecting the country’s security.
The typed letter dated Friday and signed by Michael Ben’Ary said that as a prosecutor, he took an oath “that requires you to follow the facts and the law wherever they lead, free from fear or favor, and unhindered by political interference.”
“In recent months, the political leadership of the Department have violated these principles, jeopardizing our national security and making American citizens less safe,” he said.
Ben’Ary’s letter adds to a list of federal prosecutors who, since Trump took office in January, say they were fired as part of a political calculous and without consideration for their work.
The prosecutor was fired Wednesday after Julie Kelly, a pro-Donald Trump activist and writer, posted on X that “One can only assume he was a big part of the internal resistance to the (James) Comey indictment.”
But he wasn’t involved in the case against former FBI director James Comey case, CNN previously reported, and Ben’Ary denounced his firing as “without cause” and “based on little more than a single social media post containing false information.”
Ben’Ary wrote that his firing “highlights the most troubling aspect of the current operations of the Department of Justice: the leadership is more concerned with punishing the President’s perceived enemies than they are with protecting our national security.”
Ben’Ary added that he was leading the criminal prosecution against a man allegedly involved in the planning of a bombing during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
“Justice for Americans killed and injured by our enemies should not be contingent on what someone in the Department of Justice sees in their social media feed that day,” he said.
CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment
The Eastern District of Virginia was thrust into turmoil last month when its former leader was forced out over his refusal to indict one Trump’s perceived enemies, New York Attorney General Letitia James, with mortgage fraud. The new US Attorney, Trump ally Lindsey Halligan, quickly secured an indictment against Comey for allegedly lying during congressional testimony about the Russia investigation.
“The decisions to remove experienced career officials from US Attorneys Offices, the FBI, and other critical parts of DOJ undermines our country’s ability to counter terrorist organizations, malign nation-state actors, and countless others that seek to harm our nation and its citizens,” Ben’Ary wrote.
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