Conservative lawyer is new top federal prosecutor for office probing Letitia James after resignation

WASHINGTON AP A conservative lawyer who has reported she was falsely accused of being at the U S Capitol on Jan has been tapped to serve as the top federal prosecutor for the Virginia office that was thrown into turmoil when its U S attorney was pushed out on Friday Mary Maggie Cleary disclosed in an email to staff on Saturday that she had been named acting U S attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia according to a copy viewed by The Associated Press She replaces Erik Siebert who resigned amid a push by Trump administration agents to bring criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James in a mortgage fraud probe While this appointment was unexpected I am humbled to be joining your ranks Cleary advised employees in the email Cleary will take over an office in tumult over political pressure by administration authorities to criminally charge James a longtime foe of President Donald Trump The study stems from alleged paperwork discrepancies on James Brooklyn townhouse and a Virginia home The Justice Department has spent months conducting the review 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 claims and characterized the research as an act of political revenge While Siebert revealed in an email to colleagues Friday evening that he had submitted his resignation Trump revealed in a social media post He didn t quit I fired him Trump noted he was backed by the state s two Democratic senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine adding Next time let him go in as a Democrat not a Republican Cleary in recent weeks rejoined the Justice Department as a senior counsel in the criminal division after working as a prosecutor in the Culpepper Commonwealth s Attorneys Office She also worked as deputy secretary of society 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 as having been present on Capitol grounds during the Jan 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 eventually 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 reported she yearned that job to end this type of remedy Source