Justice Department fires top career prosecutor in Lindsey Halligan-led office

By Katelyn Polantz, Kristen Holmes, CNN

(CNN) — The top career prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Eastern District of Virginia office has been fired, according to three people familiar with the development Monday.

It is the latest dramatic change to the powerful prosecutors’ office that previously brought cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The prosecutor, Robert McBride, was in the US Attorney’s Office for only a handful of weeks, working as No. 2 to Lindsey Halligan, who is President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the office as US Attorney but whose authority has been undercut in court.

McBride’s removal, supported by Justice Department leadership in Washington, leaves the office without a top prosecutor to manage the office and oversee investigations and cases, including ones Halligan has sought.

Halligan was sent by Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Trump administration to lead the office in late September, with McBride moving into the first assistant job shortly thereafter.

McBride had taken on some top responsibilities in the office. That included meeting with judges in the Eastern District of Virginia in recent weeks, which is typical for US Attorneys to do.

CNN is attempting to reach McBride for comment.

The US Attorney’s Office in Alexandria has been in turmoil for months, since Trump’s first choice to lead it was forced out, and other experienced prosecutors were also removed.

Since then, Halligan’s indictments of Comey and James have caused significant fallout. Judges have repeatedly told Halligan she no longer has authority to lead the office. Legal questions of who has the leadership authority among EDVA prosecutors prompted the department to sign court filings in recent weeks with both Halligan’s and McBride’s names, as well as the name of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

A judge in Washington, DC, largely blocked the office from attempting to revive the case against Comey. And grand juries in the district more than once have refused to re-indict James on accusations of mortgage fraud.

Questions still linger inside the US Attorney’s Office on whether McBride was aligned with Halligan and others in the Department about what to do next with the Comey and James cases, people familiar with McBride’s departure say. Other line prosecutors on the heavily politicized cases have left the office.

At the same time, political appointees in the Trump administration were unhappy with McBride recently, according to a personal familiar with the situation. Some were unhappy he didn’t have regular meetings with other law enforcement entity and hadn’t push forward as many immigration-related cases as others in the department wanted.

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