WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Erik Siebert, a federal prosecutor in Virginia whose monthslong mortgage fraud investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James has not resulted in criminal charges, is resigning under pressure from the Trump administration, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Friday, September 19.
Siebert is leaving his position amid a push by Trump administration officials to bring charges against James, a perceived adversary of the president who has successfully sued him for fraud. The people who confirmed his plans to resign spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
It was not immediately clear Friday afternoon 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.
It comes shortly after Trump said Siebert should be removed as head of the prestigious Eastern District of Virginia U.S. office. Siebert’s top deputy, Maya Song, is also leaving her position as first assistant U.S. attorney and will work as a line prosecutor, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
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’s been no indication that prosecutors have managed to uncover any degree of incriminating evidence that could support bringing an indictment.
James has long been a particular source of outrage for Trump, in part because of a lawsuit she filed against him and his company that resulted in a massive financial penalty. That penalty was thrown out last month 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 last month 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’ Brooklyn townhouse in a “Columbo”-esque 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’ lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told Martin in a letter that the request for James’ 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 U.S. attorney by Trump this year with the backing of the state’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
(With inputs from AP )
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