‘He didn’t quit, I fired him,’ President Donald Trump said of federal prosecutor Erik Siebert.
President Donald Trump said on Sept. 19 that he had withdrawn the nomination of Erik Siebert to serve as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Siebert is currently serving as interim for the role. He has been leading the probe into New York Attorney General Letitia James’s mortgage fraud case, but his office did not find “incriminating evidence” to bring charges, according to a joint statement by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.).
Trump stated on social media that he decided to withdraw Siebert’s nomination after learning that the prosecutor received “unusually strong support” from Democratic senators.
“He didn’t quit, I fired him! Next time let him go in as a Democrat, not a Republican,” the president stated in a Truth Social post.
When asked by a reporter on Sept. 19 about Siebert’s failure to bring charges in the mortgage fraud case, Trump said of James: “It looks to me like she’s really guilty of something, but I really don’t know.”
James previously described the mortgage fraud claims as “baseless.”
Trump also said that he believed Siebert should be removed from his post because the prosecutor had the support of Warner and Kaine—the state’s two senators, both Democratic—for his nomination.
It remains unclear who will replace Siebert. Trump’s post came as reports surfaced that Siebert has resigned from his position.
Siebert could not immediately be reached for comment.
Siebert joined the Eastern District of Virginia in 2010 as an assistant U.S. attorney. Warner and Kaine have argued that the White House formally nominated him for the role in May after their recommendation, adding that he had also gone through an “extensive interview process” with input from a bipartisan panel.
The senators defended Siebert in a joint statement, calling him an “ethical prosecutor who refused to bring criminal charges against Trump’s perceived enemies when the facts wouldn’t support it.”
The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Siebert’s office has been investigating mortgage fraud allegations against James, who was accused of falsifying business records to obtain better home mortgage rates.
