by
Win
McNamee/Getty
Images)
The
Justice
Department
was
the
scene
of
an
ecstatic
orgy
of
corruption
this
weekend.
Again.
On
Friday,
Erik
Siebert,
the
US
Attorney
for
the
Eastern
District
of
Virginia
(EDVA),
resigned
his
office.
Trump
had
been
grumbling
for
weeks
about
“his”
US
Attorneys
refusing
to
indict
his
political
enemies.
And
that’s
even
after
Bill
Pulte,
head
of
the
Federal
Housing
Finance
Agency,
went
spelunking
through
decades
of
mortgage
records
looking
for
any
discrepancy
that
might
be
spun
up
into
a
federal
case
against
people
who
were
mean
to
Trump.
Unfair!
Seibert’s
sin
was
refusing
to
charge
New
York
Attorney
General
Letitia
James
with
mortgage
fraud
with
respect
to
the
2023
purchase
of
a
property
in
Virginia.
Incident
to
the
sale,
James
executed
a
power
of
attorney
in
favor
of
her
niece,
and
the
document
inaccurately
described
the
house
as
a
primary
residence.
ABC
reports
that
the
power
of
attorney
was
prepared
by
title
attorneys
(and
not
James)
from
an
uncorrected
template,
and
that
it
was
never
even
seen
by
the
mortgage
company.
The
rest
of
the
deed
and
mortgage
documents
accurately
reflected
that
the
home
would
not
be
a
primary
residence.
Nevertheles,s
Pulte
pumped
out
dozens
of
social
media
posts
and
said
on
Fox
News,
“I
believe
this
is
riddled
with
mortgage
fraud,
and
frankly,
I
think
that’s
why
she
knew
so
much
about
the
law
in
terms
of
how
to
go
after
President
Trump.”
But
Pulte
is
not
a
lawyer,
and
Erik
Siebert
is.
In
fact,
Siebert
spent
15
years
at
the
Department
of
Justice
in
the
Eastern
District
of
Virginia
(EDVA)
and
was
elevated
to
serve
as
interim
US
Attorney
when
his
predecessor
Jessica
Aber
resigned
in
January.
Under
28
USC
§
546,
an
interim
appointment
expires
after
120
days,
after
which
the
district’s
judges
may
appoint
a
successor
who
can
serve
indefinitely
until
a
new
US
Attorney
is
named.
And
so,
when
his
120-day
term
expired,
Siebert
was
unanimously
appointed
by
the
EDVA
judges
to
remain
in
office.
At
the
urging
of
Republican
Governor
Glenn
Youngkin
and
with
the
support
of
Senators
Tim
Kaine
and
Mark
Warner,
the
president
then
nominated
Siebert
for
a
full
term
in
May.
But
on
Friday,
Trump
complained
to
reporters
in
the
Oval
Office
that
he’d
been
duped
into
naming
a
liberal
plant
who’d
been
“blue
slipped
through
by
two
Democrat
senators
in
Virginia.”
“When
I
learned
that
they
voted
for
him,
I
said,
I
don’t
really
want
him,”
he
groused,
suggesting
that
Democratic
support
is
actually
disqualifying
for
any
nominee,
despite
the
fact
that
Siebert
had
been
voted
out
of
the
Republican-dominated
Judiciary
Committee
a
mere
eight
days
earlier.
Seeing
the
writing
on
the
wall,
Siebert
stepped
down
on
Friday,
after
which
Attorney
General
Pam
Bondi
tapped
Maggie
Cleary
as
his
interim
replacement.
Cleary,
who
is
active
in
Virginia
Republican
politics,
only
recently
returned
to
the
Justice
Department.
It’s
unclear
if
she
intends
to
try
to
persuade
a
grand
jury
to
indict
the
New
York
AG.
But
Siebert’s
resignation
did
not
mollify
the
president,
who
whined
in
a
late-night
social
media
post
that
“He
didn’t
quit,
I
fired
him!”
Then
he
turned
his
firehose
of
rage
on
Bondi
herself,
howling
about
“statements”
lamenting
the
DOJ’s
failure
to
charge
James
when
“there
is
a
GREAT
CASE,
and
many
lawyers,
and
legal
pundits,
say
so.”
The
identity
of
the
lawyers
lauding
the
“GREAT
CASE”
against
James
is
left
as
an
exercise
for
the
reader.
Ditto
for
the
origin
of
the
“30
statements”
bemoaning
the
DOJ’s
dereliction.
Truth
Social?
The
president’s
dental
fillings?
But
Lindsey
Halligan
should
be
a
familiar
name
to
followers
of
Trump’s
past
crimes.
In
2022,
after
the
FBI
“raided”
Mar-a-Lago,
Trump
went
looking
for
attorneys
willing
to
sign
onto
a
legal
challenge
to
the
judicially-authorized
search
warrant.
He
had
lawyers
willing
to
say
a
lot
of
crazy
shit,
of
course,
but
none
of
them
were
barred
in
the
Southern
District
of
Florida.
Enter
Halligan,
an
insurance
defense
lawyer
in
Fort
Lauderdale
whose
courtroom
experience
consisted
of
serving
as
second
chair
in
a
two-day
trial
in
a
case
brought
by
Miami
homeowners
with
damaged
roofs.
But
Halligan
had
made
several
appearances
on
Steve
Bannon’s
podcast
praising
Trump,
and
that
(along
with
her
Florida
bar
card)
was
enough.
Halligan
gamely
toddled
along
behind
James
Trusty
and
Evan
Corcoran,
Trump’s
“real”
defense
lawyers,
until
the
Eleventh
Circuit
smacked
down
Judge
Aileen
Cannon’s
first
attempt
to
bone
the
stolen
documents
case.
And
even
though
Halligan’s
services
weren’t
needed
after
Trump’s
PAC
paid
former
Florida
Solicitor
General
Chris
Kise
$3
million
to
leave
Biglaw
and
represent
Trump,
she
never
really
left
his
orbit.
Halligan
followed
Trump
to
DC,
where
she
is
currently
the
“Assistant
to
the
President
for
Domestic
Policy
and
the
Special
Assistant
to
the
President
and
Senior
Associate
Staff
Secretary.”
On
March
5,
Trump
tasked
her
with
de-woke-ifying
the
Smithsonian
pursuant
to
an
executive
order
in
which
he
claimed
the
institution
“has
promoted
narratives
that
portray
American
and
Western
values
as
inherently
harmful
and
oppressive.”
Halligan,
whose
undergraduate
degree
is
in
politics,
told
the
Washington
Post
that
her
visits
to
the
museum
left
her
dismayed
with
the
lack
of
focus
on
the
ways
“America
is
so
special.”
So
it
is
perhaps
unsurprising
that
Halligan,
who
is
not
barred
in
the
Commonwealth
of
Virginia
and
who
boasts
zero
prosecutorial
experience,
would
feel
confident
in
her
ability
to
serve
as
the
district’s
top
prosecutor.
For
his
part,
the
president
is
certain
that
Halligan
can
“get
things
moving.”
Confusingly,
Trump
claims
to
have
both
“nominated”
Halligan
and
“appointed”
her
as
US
Attorney
for
EDVA,
making
it
unclear
if
he
intends
to
“get
things
moving”
imminently
by
installing
her
in
office
now.
Pushing
out
Cleary
in
favor
of
Halligan
might
well
“get
things
moving”
faster,
particularly
with
Senate
nominations
taking
months.
But
if
Trump
installs
Halligan
immediately
via
interim
appointment,
he
risks
having
her
time
out
the
way
Siebert
did
—
and
it’s
a
safe
bet
that
the
judges
in
EDVA
aren’t
going
to
bless
her
continued
tenure
the
way
they
did
with
a
guy
who
was
actually
competent.
There’s
currently
pandemonium
in
New
Jersey
after
Trump
installed
Alina
Habba,
another
of
his
personal
lawyers,
as
US
Attorney
and
tried
to
keep
her
on
the
job
after
120
days
without
Senate
confirmation.
And
whoever
occupies
the
office
may
struggle
to
secure
an
indictment
against
James
on
the
basis
of
this
flimsy
evidence.
Next
door
in
DC,
US
Attorney
Jeanine
Pirro
keeps
getting
“no-billed”
as
grand
jurors
refuse
to
rubber-stamp
the
most
blatantly
political
of
this
administration’s
prosecutions.
But
whatever
the
outcome,
pushing
out
Siebert
because
he
refused
to
charge
Trump’s
enemies
is
yet
another
massive
attack
on
the
rule
of
law.
Trump’s
mumbling
about
the
“UNUSUALLY
STRONG
SUPPORT
of
the
two
absolutely
terrible,
sleazebag
Democrat
Senators”
fools
no
one,
particularly
when
it’s
explicitly
tied
to
the
two
impeachments
and
five
indictments
“OVER
NOTHING.”
This
is
payback,
and
no
one
is
really
pretending
otherwise.