President Donald Trump piled pressure on Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political enemies in a post to Truth Social.
There has been speculation that the post was a leaked private correspondence to Bondi wherein he listed her failings and expressed frustration with her, though this has not been confirmed.
Trump mentioned Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James as people who are 'guilty as hell', before he lamented that no criminal charges have been brought against them by the Department of Justice.
Much of his exasperation was with Erik Siebert, the former US attorney from the Eastern District of Virginia who reportedly declined to prosecute James for mortgage fraud because the case was lacking evidence.
Siebert also did not prosecute Comey after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused him of threatening Trump in a social media post, the Washington Post reported.
News outlets initially reported that Siebert resigned from his position, but Trump contradicted that in his post.
'He even lied to the media and said he quit, and that we had no case. No, I fired him, and there is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so,' Trump wrote.
Also in the post, Trump also appeared to float Lindsey Halligan, a lawyer currently serving as a special assistant to the president, as a replacement for Siebert.
President Donald Trump heaped pressure on Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political enemies in a post to Truth Social on Saturday evening.
He then later announced he was appointing Lindsey Halligan, a lawyer currently serving as a White House special assistant, to serve as the new US Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.
In a follow-up post made about a half hour later, Trump officially announced his intention to nominate Halligan to the US Attorney position in Virginia's eastern district.
He described Siebert as a 'Democrat Endorsed "Republican"' and said Halligan will 'be Fair, Smart, and will provide, desperately needed, JUSTICE FOR ALL!'
Trump also appeared to walk back his prior exasperated tone with Bondi, saying she is 'doing a GREAT job' as attorney general.
Halligan has been representing Trump for years, most prominently serving as one of his attorneys in the case against him for retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
In August 2024, that case was dismissed by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, with her arguing that Special Prosecutor Jack Smith's appointment was unconstitutional.
Smith appealed the ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which then formally dismissed the case in February 2025, marking its end.
More recently, Halligan was leading the charge in Trump's review of historical exhibits at the Smithsonian.
In an August interview with Fox News, Halligan said slavery was an overemphasized topic at the museum in Washington, D.C.
In his post announcing Halligan's appointment, Trump also appeared to walk back his prior exasperated tone with Bondi.
Erik Siebert is the ousted US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Trump intends to replace him with Halligan, a lawyer who has served him for years.
'The fact our country was involved in slavery is awful -- no one thinks otherwise,' she said. 'But what I saw when I was going through the museum, personally, was an overemphasis on slavery, and I think there should be more of an overemphasis on how far we've come since slavery.'
'There's a lot of history to our country, both positive and negative,' she added. 'We can't just keep focusing on the negative -- all that does is divide us.'
Halligan's promotion comes after Bondi reportedly tapped Mary 'Maggie' Cleary to be the acting US attorney in that office.
Cleary has served as an assistant US attorney in the Western District of Virginia and is perhaps most known for her attempts to beat back an allegation made by an anonymous individual that she was present during the January 6 Capitol Riot.
Cleary, a conservative Republican, was briefly placed on administrative leave but was cleared after a brief internal investigation, Politico reported.