President Donald Trump said Saturday he intends to nominate one of his former defense attorneys to lead a key federal prosecutor's office in Virginia.
Lindsey Halligan, who is currently working in the White House staff secretary's office, represented Trump for a time during the classified documents investigation.
Trump made the announcement in a post on his social media platform, saying the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia needed a "tough prosecutor" in order "to get things moving."
The post went on to say: "What we don’t need is a Democrat Endorsed 'Republican.' I will be nominating Lindsey Halligan to be the United States Attorney in this very important part of our Great Country. She will be Fair, Smart, and will provide, desperately needed, JUSTICE FOR ALL!"
The announcement came a day after the previous head of that office, Erik Siebert, resigned his position amid pressure from Trump administration officials to bring a criminal case against New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Halligan, who does not have any prosecutorial experience, is practiced to license law in Florida and handled insurance claims when she joined Trump's legal team amid the probe by the Justice Department into Trump's handling of classified material after leaving office following his first term.
More recently, from her post in the White House, Halligan was tasked by Trump with an effort to root out what the administration calls radical ideology at the Smithsonian Institution museums.
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Trump's announcement that he intended to nominate Halligan to the position came shortly after a previous post in which he appeared to criticize U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi over the pace of investigations into his political opponents, including the investigation of James over an allegation of mortgage fraud.
In the follow-up post on Saturday, Trump wrote: "Pam Bondi is doing a GREAT job as Attorney General of the United States."
Earlier this week, ABC News reported that Trump wasexpected to fireSiebert after investigators were unable to find incriminating evidence of mortgage fraud against James, according to sources.Trump officials had pushed Siebert to bring charges against James, despite investigators failing to find clear evidence that she committed a crime, sources said.
"It looks to me like she is very guilty of something, but I really don't know," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.
When asked about Siebert, Trump said he wanted him "out" of the position because Virginia's two Democratic senators supported his nomination. Trump nominated Siebert for the position in May, and he has served as the interim U.S. attorney since Trump's inauguration.
"When I saw that he got approved by those two men, I said, pull it, because he can't be any good," Trump said. "When I learned that they voted for him, I said, I don't really want him."
Staff at the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Virginia received an email Saturday afternoon from Maggie Cleary, an official who recently joined the Justice Department's Criminal Division, who said she was named the acting head of the office.
