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

WASHINGTON (AP) — A conservative lawyer who has said she was falsely accused of being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, 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 said 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 officials to bring criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James in a mortgage fraud investigation.

“While this appointment was unexpected, I am humbled to be joining your ranks,” Cleary told employees in the email.

Cleary will take over an office in tumult over political pressure by administration officials to criminally charge James, a longtime foe of President Donald Trump. The investigation stems from alleged paperwork discrepancies on James’ Brooklyn townhouse and a Virginia home.

The Justice Department has spent months conducting the investigation 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 allegations and characterized the investigation as an act of political revenge.

While Siebert said in an email to colleagues Friday evening that he had submitted his resignation, Trump said 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 recently 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 public 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. 6 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 finally 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 said she wanted that job “to end this type of treatment.”