Trump aide takes over as US attorney in Virginia to replace prosecutor fired for not charging political opponent
By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
(CNN) — Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide and a fierce ally of President Donald Trump, has taken over as the top federal prosecutor in Virginia’s eastern district, according to a person familiar with the change.
Halligan assumed the office days after her predecessor, Erik Siebert, was pushed out of the job amid political pressure to indict one of Trump’s political enemies, New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Siebert was also overseeing the investigation into whether former FBI Director James Comey lied in testimony before Congress.
Halligan’s appointment puts another of Trump’s personal attorneys in a position of legal power – running an office that has been tasked to spearhead high profile investigations that the president has publicly demanded action in.
The Eastern District of Virginia faced a push from the White House under Siebert to bring charges against James, despite a conclusion that the five-month investigation into whether the New York attorney general committed mortgage fraud had not yet yielded enough evidence to indict her.
Halligan was one of Trump’s close legal advisers in recent years but has no experience as a prosecutor. She worked as one of his attorneys during the initial investigation into whether Trump was illegally keeping classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump praised her for the work in a social media post announcing her appointment over the weekend, writing that she “represented me (and WON!) in the disgraceful Democrat Documents Hoax.”
“She is extremely intelligent, fearless and, working with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, has the strength and determination to be absolutely OUTSTANDING in this new and very important role,” Trump wrote.
The White House had placed Mary “Maggie” Cleary, a conservative lawyer who has said she was falsely accused of being at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in charge of the office over the weekend until Halligan could be sworn in.
Trump also tasked earlier this year with rooting out “woke” ideology and what the White House considers anti-American propaganda at the Smithsonian.
Halligan echoed the president’s claims last month, telling Fox News in an interview that Smithsonian museums have an “overemphasis on slavery.”
“We should be able to take our kids, our students, through the Smithsonian and feel proud when we leave,” Halligan said. “There’s a lot of history to our country — both positive and negative — but we need to keep moving forward; we can’t just keep focusing on the negative. All it does is divide us.”
The-CNN-Wire
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