The Trump administration fired a top prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia following reports that he would not take up a case against former FBI Director James Comey or New York Attorney General Letitia James — both longtime foes of President Donald Trump.
Robert McBride, 64, was the first assistant to U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan before a recent ruling from U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie declared she was improperly appointed.
A pair of cases against Comey and James were tossed out as a result of the ruling. But according to MS NOW, the Trump administration approached McBride for several days to take up the case against Comey, which the network’s sources said he declined.
Comey was criminally indicted by the Trump administration for allegedly lying to Congress in 2020 during a hearing on the FBI’s probe into possible links between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. James, meanwhile, was indicted for bank fraud in connection with a rental property she owns in Virginia. Both cases were handled by Halligan before the courts intervened, leaving the indictments in limbo after Currie’s decision.
The firing was approved by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office and signed by the Executive Office of U.S Attorneys.
The Department of Justice declined to comment on the firing and directed NOTUS to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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