Donald Trump took to Truth Social in the middle of the night to claim that he actually fired Erik Siebert, his hand-picked attorney for the Eastern District of Virgina, though Siebert had resigned hours prior.
“He didn’t quit, I fired him!”, wrote Trump at 12:14 AM.
Siebert reportedly was under political pressure to bring mortgage fraud charges against NY Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime target of Trump who successfully sued the president for fraud.
In April, Bill Pulte, the administration’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, encouraged Trump to go after James. The administration directed Siebert to investigate whether James listed her Virginia home as her primary residence to allegedly get more favorable loan terms.
After months of investigation, investigators found that James only listed the home as a primary residence on a limited power of attorney form that allowed her niece and co-purchaser to sign documents on her behalf. Unable to make a prosecutable case against James, Siebert declined to press charges. On Wednesday, ABC News reported that Trump was expected to fire him.
At 7:53 PM, four and a half hours before Trump’s Truth Social rant, ABC News reported that Siebert had tendered his resignation to staff via email. His email made no mention of the Letitia James investigation.
Two hours before that, Trump told reporters in an Oval Office photo op that he was “not following” the case very closely, but was suspicious of Siebert because he had been approved by Virginia’s Dem. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.
“They voted for this guy, and I have other people, judges, and U.S. Attorneys from other states who have the same situation, and they can’t get approved,” he told ABC’s Jonathan Karl.
“So when I learned that they voted [for Siebert], I said, I don’t really want him.”
Trump nominated Siebert for the position in May.
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