President 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, Erik Siebert, abruptly left on Friday.
In a social media post just after he departed the White House for an event at Mount Vernon, Mr. Trump wrote he would be nominating Halligan as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, writing that she “will be Fair, Smart, and will provide, desperately needed, JUSTICE FOR ALL!”
Mr. Trump’s selection of Halligan came just hours after another conservative lawyer, Mary “Maggie” Cleary, said in an email to staff that was obtained by CBS News that she had been named acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
“While this appointment was unexpected, I am humbled to be joining your ranks,” Cleary told employees in the email. “The Eastern District of Virginia has a distinguished legacy upon which we will build.”
CBS News has reached out to the White House for clarification on whether Cleary or Halligan will be leading the Eastern District of Virginia while Halligan’s Senate nomination process plays out.
Halligan has been part of Mr. Trump’s legal orbit for the last several years, including serving as one of his attorneys in the early days of the FBI’s investigation into Mr. Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, which President Trump referenced in a follow-up Truth Social post later Saturday evening.
“Lindsey is a tough, smart, and loyal attorney, who has worked with me for a long time, including in the winning fight against the Weaponization of our Justice System by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats, which she witnessed firsthand when she stood up for my rights during the Unconstitutional and UnAmerican raid on my home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida,” Mr. Trump wrote.
She has more recently been enlisted in a White House effort to remove what the administration contends is “improper ideology” from Smithsonian properties.
Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images 
Siebert resigned amid pressure from Trump administration officials to bring criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James in a mortgage fraud investigation. Multiple sources had told CBS News Friday that federal prosecutors for the district were concerned that Siebert could be removed for failing to prosecute James.
Mr. Trump did not push back on those concerns, saying Friday, “Yeah, I want him out.”
Halligan would take over an office in tumult over political pressure by administration officials to criminally charge James, a longtime foe of Mr. Trump. In May, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News that the Justice Department had launched a criminal fraud probe targeting James.
The investigation stems from allegations that James provided false information on mortgage applications to get better loan rates for a home in Virginia.
The Justice Department has spent months conducting the investigation but has yet to bring charges, and there’s been no indication that prosecutors have managed to uncover any degree of incriminating evidence necessary to secure an indictment. James’ lawyers have vigorously denied any allegations and characterized the investigation as an act of political revenge.
In 2022, James sued Mr. Trump for years of alleged financial fraud, claiming Mr. Trump and his family participated in a conspiracy to inflate his net worth by billions of dollars in order to secure better loan rates, among other things. A judge found them liable and ultimately ruled Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization must pay $354 million in fines, though the actual total recently climbed to above $500 million due to interest amid the appeals process. In August, a New York appellate court threw out the half-billion-dollar penalty, ruling that the fine was “excessive,” while saying they were divided on the merits of the case.
While Siebert said in an email to colleagues Friday evening that he had submitted his resignation, Trump wrote in a social media post: “He didn’t quit, I fired him!”
Mr. Trump wrote Saturday that he “withdrew” Siebert’s nomination for U.S. attorney when he “was informed” that Siebert had “received the UNUSUALLY STRONG support” of Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner of Virginia. Both senators had expressed support for Siebert’s nomination back in May.
“What is Trump focused on?” the two senators wrote in a joint statement Friday. “Threatening to pull anyone who criticizes him on TV off the air. And now, pushing out the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia that we recommended and he himself nominated because Erik Siebert is an ethical prosecutor who refused to bring criminal charges against Trump’s perceived enemies when the facts wouldn’t support it.”
The president reiterated his statement that he fired Siebert in a separate Truth Social post Saturday, writing that Siebert “lied to the media and said he quit, and that we had no case. No, I fired him, and there is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so.”
In that post, Mr. Trump also praised Halligan as a “really good lawyer.” A little over one hour later, he had announced that he would be nominating her to lead the Eastern District of Virginia.
Cleary recently rejoined the Justice Department as a senior counsel in the criminal division after working as a prosecutor in the Culpepper Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. She also worked as deputy secretary of public safety in Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration and later served in Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares’ office.
Cleary wrote in an article for The Spectator World earlier this year about being wrongly identified in a photo which allegedly placed her on Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 riot. Cleary, who at the time was working as a federal prosecutor in the Western District of Virginia, wrote: “Everyone knew I was a conservative. It was all over my resume. I was in leadership in my local Republican Committee. But I had not gone to the Capitol that day.”
She described being placed on administrative leave and interviewed by agents before later being cleared to return to work.
“In the last four years, I’ve been somewhat cautious about sharing my experience, but now, while Donald Trump is president, I feel emboldened to finally tell how, I, too, was targeted politically,” Cleary wrote.
At the time the article was published in May, she was interviewing to serve as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia. Cleary said she wanted that job “to end this type of treatment.”
contributed to this report.
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