Attorney General Pam Bondi has tapped a new top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, a day after U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert resigned from the post amid attacks from the president.
Bondi appointed Mary “Maggie” Cleary — a self-described conservative lawyer from Culpeper, Virginia, who has been active in Republican politics — as acting U.S. attorney, according to two people familiar with the decision and an internal email reviewed by POLITICO.
Cleary has served as an assistant U.S. attorney and once claimed she was “framed” for being at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, leading to a brief internal investigation and placement on administrative leave before she was cleared.
Cleary wrote in May that the experience of being falsely accused led her to apply to become U.S. attorney in Virginia with a plan to “end politically weaponized investigations.”
“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.
Cleary’s ascension, which was announced within the Justice Department on Saturday afternoon, comes amid controversy over Siebert’s departure. ABC News first reported that Siebert had been resisting pressure to criminally charge New York Attorney General Letitia James — a longtime Trump adversary — with mortgage fraud. POLITICO has not independently confirmed the contours of the James investigation.
After he informed his office Friday he was resigning, Trump claimed in a late-night Truth Social post that he had actually fired Siebert because of his links to Democrats.
Bondi appointed Cleary as the district’s first assistant U.S. attorney, which automatically elevated her to the acting U.S. attorney role as a result of the vacancy, according to a person familiar with the decision.
In an internal email reviewed by POLITICO, Cleary described her appointment as “unexpected” and thanked Siebert for his “many years of service to the District and to the country.”
“I look forward to working with you to further our mission for the American people,” Cleary wrote.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report incorrectly described who appointed Cleary to the role, it was Bondi.
