Much worse than Watergate: Lindsey Halligan fires more prosecutors in key US attorney’s office
"Stupidity/incompetence reign - Trump's Political Prosecution Of Letitia James Has Completely Fallen Apart"
Related: Leticia James is one smart woman. [...]NY AG Leticia James, on the day of her arraignment on a frame job of a mortgage fraud indictment, has already filed multiple motions against Trump, his DOJ and Lindsey Halligan, to gag Halligan, get the indictment dismissed asap, and to put Halligan in a freezer and have the Court declare she has no power to prosecute anyone or anything
Lindsey Halligan, attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump, looks on during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House, on March 31, 2025 in Washington, DC. Al Drago/Getty Images/File
President Donald Trump’s hand-picked interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan has fired more senior prosecutors from the Eastern District of Virginia office, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Beth Yusi and Kristin Bird were no longer with the office as of Friday. Yusi has been with the Department of Justice since 2007. One source said that Halligan believed the attorneys to be leaking “unauthorized” information to the press. The other source added that they received termination letters.
CNN has reached out to Yusi and Bird for comment.
Halligan has moved quickly to assert her authority over the office, with several recent firings and departures, and she has become personally involved in courtroom proceedings — which is unusual for a US attorney —in the recent indictments of Trump foes James Comey and Letitia James.
The move indicates a deepening split between Halligan, who leads the powerful office, and its roster of experienced prosecutors.
Cleary sided with career prosecutors who opposed bringing the Comey case. She sat in a back row, not at the government table, when Halligan presented the indictment from the grand jury before the magistrate judge.
Two other career prosecutors, Michael Ben’Ary and Maya Song, were fired in the aftermath of Halligan charging Comey. Comey’s son-in-law Troy Edwards Jr., who was a career prosecutor in the office, also resigned.
Justice Department “leadership is more concerned with punishing the President’s perceived enemies than they are with protecting our national security,” Ben’Ary wrote in a note he taped to the door of his former office when he left two weeks ago.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
CNN’s Katelyn Polantz and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.