In a move that has sent shockwaves through the legal and political communities, President Donald Trump is expected to fire Erik Siebert, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, after Siebert resisted pressure to bring criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James. The unfolding drama, first reported by ABC News, has laid bare deep tensions within the Department of Justice and raised pointed questions about the boundaries between law enforcement and political power.
According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Siebert was notified on Thursday, September 18, 2025, of Trump’s intention to terminate his employment, with Friday, September 19, anticipated as his final day in office. The catalyst for this dramatic decision? Siebert’s refusal to prosecute James for alleged mortgage fraud related to her 2023 home purchase, despite federal prosecutors’ findings that there was no clear evidence she knowingly committed any wrongdoing.
The investigation into James began in April 2025, when Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, alleging irregularities in James’s real estate transaction. Pulte, speaking to Fox News last month, asserted, “I believe this is riddled with mortgage fraud, and frankly, I think that's why she knew so much about the law in terms of how to go after President Trump. She was the fraudster, not President Trump.”
Despite the referral and mounting political pressure, prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia found that the key document in question—a limited power of attorney form used by James’s niece to sign documents on her behalf—was never even considered by the loan officers who approved the mortgage. As a result, investigators concluded there was no credible evidence to pursue criminal charges against James.
Nevertheless, Trump officials reportedly urged Siebert to proceed with charges. When he refused, the president moved to replace him—a decision that has drawn fierce criticism from legal experts, lawmakers, and James’s own legal team. Abbe Lowell, attorney for Letitia James, did not mince words in a statement to ABC News on September 19, declaring, “Firing people until he finds someone who will bend the law to carry out his revenge has been the President’s pattern -- and it's illegal. Punishing this prosecutor, a Trump appointee, for doing his job sends a clear and chilling message that anyone who dares uphold the law over politics will face the same fate.”
The anticipated firing has left the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia—one of the nation’s most prominent and busiest federal prosecutor’s offices—in a state of uncertainty. With a staff of around 300 prosecutors serving over six million people, the office is renowned for its fast-moving trial court and its handling of major terrorism and intelligence-related cases due to its proximity to Washington, D.C. Now, the Trump administration is reportedly struggling to identify a viable successor for the sensitive post. Maya Song, the office’s First Assistant United States Attorney and next in line for succession, may also face dismissal, according to senior DOJ and administration officials.
Song, a career prosecutor who joined the office in 2013, has served as the office’s No. 2 since October 2024 and previously worked in former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco’s office during the Biden administration. Notably, President Trump has repeatedly accused Monaco—without evidence—of orchestrating federal prosecutions against him, which were ultimately dismissed due to a longstanding Department of Justice policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president.
Within the DOJ, news of Siebert’s imminent dismissal has sparked alarm. Career prosecutors reportedly responded Friday morning with deep concern about the future of the office and the potential for widespread resignations or walkouts. The White House, for its part, has not commented on Siebert’s job status.
Critics of the president have described the move to fire Siebert as a further escalation of what they call a campaign of retribution. Ongoing investigations have also targeted prominent figures such as Senator Adam Schiff and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, fueling accusations that Trump is leveraging the Justice Department to settle political scores. The president’s defenders, however, maintain that the administration is simply seeking accountability and that James’s own actions warrant scrutiny.
The relationship between Trump and James has been contentious for years. James, who successfully brought a civil fraud case against Trump in 2023, has led multiple lawsuits challenging his administration’s policies. Trump has repeatedly accused her of political bias, calling her “biased and corrupt” and, during his 2023 civil fraud trial, declaring, “This has to do with election interference, plain and simple. We have a corrupt attorney general in this state.” He also described James as “a horror show who ran on the basis that she was going to get Trump before she even knew anything about me.”
The backdrop to this latest controversy is the high-profile civil fraud case in which a New York judge found in 2023 that Trump and his family had committed a decade of business fraud by overstating the value of their properties to secure favorable loan terms. The judge fined Trump and his sons nearly half a billion dollars, though an appeals court later tossed the financial penalty while upholding the finding of fraud.
For Siebert, the current turmoil marks a dramatic turn in a distinguished career. A former police officer with Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, he graduated from law school in 2009 and has served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia since 2010. He headed the office’s organized drug crime task force and supervised its Richmond division from 2019 to 2024. After the resignation of Jessica Aber, who led the office from 2021 to 2025, Siebert became interim U.S. attorney on January 21, 2025. Both of Virginia’s Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, recommended him for the role, and Trump nominated him in May 2025.
Warner and Kaine expressed strong support for Siebert in a joint statement at the time: “Mr. Siebert has dedicated his career to protecting public safety, from his work with the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department to his handling of violent crimes and firearms trafficking as a line Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. With his experience and dedication to service, Mr. Siebert is equipped to handle the challenges and important obligations associated with this position.”
After his initial 120-day term as interim U.S. attorney expired in May, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia unanimously agreed to extend Siebert’s tenure, a testament to his standing within the legal community.
As the dust settles, the fate of the Eastern District of Virginia’s U.S. Attorney’s Office—and the broader implications for the Department of Justice—remain uncertain. What is clear, however, is that the firing of Erik Siebert has become a lightning rod in the ongoing debate over the politicization of law enforcement, the independence of prosecutors, and the future of the rule of law in America.
