Trump Officials Set to Remove US Attorney Over James Probe (2)

Trump administration officials told the top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia that he will be removed from his position, after he didn’t bring mortgage fraud charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Erik Siebert, whom President Donald Trump nominated as US Attorney in May, was asked by administration officials to prosecute James over allegations she committed mortgage fraud related to a home she owned in Virginia, said one of the people, both of whom asked not to be named discussing a confidential matter. Siebert’s office told the officials that it hadn’t found sufficient evidence to charge James, said the person.

Siebert is a career prosecutor that began serving at the US attorney’s office in Richmond in 2010. It’s possible that he’ll continue to work as a federal prosecutor in that office after being removed from the top job.

Erik Siebert

Photographer: Rod Lamkey/AP Photo

The Justice Department, Siebert’s and James’s offices declined to comment. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

ABC reported earlier on the administration’s move to oust Siebert.

The Justice Department’s probe into James stemmed from claims by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte that she may have committed mortgage fraud based on the residence status she listed on applications. James, who led a successful civil fraud prosecution against Trump, has denied wrongdoing.

James won a $454 million civil fraud case against Trump and his company in 2024 before he was elected. A New York appeals court struck down the financial penalty in August, but upheld the finding that Trump broke the law by inflating the value of his assets.

The Trump administration targeted several Democrats in an effort led by Justice Department official Ed Martin over the mortgage fraud allegations, including James, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and California Senator Adam Schiff. All three have denied committing fraud.

Martin was appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead the department’s so-called weaponization group. That was formed in response to an executive order by Trump “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government.”

The Justice Department has opened a separate investigation into James over the civil fraud case she won against Trump.

Trump said in August he was firing Cook over mortgage fraud allegations, prompting her to file a lawsuit in retaliation. A federal judge in Washington issued a ruling allowing Cook to remain in her position for now. Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to let him fire her while the case proceeds.

Schiff has been one of Trump’s chief antagonists dating back to his first administration. President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Schiff and others who served on a special House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.

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Siebert has spent his career climbing the ranks of the US attorney’s office in Virginia’s Eastern District. The Trump administration named him interim US attorney in January. His interim appointment expired in May, after which Trump nominated him to be confirmed by the Senate. Federal judges in the Eastern District of Virginia unanimously installed him as US attorney in May while he was awaiting Senate approval.

(Updates with mortgage fraud investigations in the eighth paragraph. An earlier version of the story corrected the spelling of Virginia in headline.)

--With assistance from Josh Wingrove and Erik Larson.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Ben Bain

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