Trump administration fires Virginia prosecutor hours after judges appointed him

The Trump administration has fired a top prosecutor in Virginia just hours after judges hired him.

A panel of judges announced on Friday that they had unanimously voted to appoint James W Hundley as the interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Hours later, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X: "EDVA judges do not pick our US Attorney. POTUS does. James Hundley, you're fired!"

It is the second time this month that the Trump administration has abruptly fired a prosecutor who was appointed by judges.

Hundley was picked to fill the seat vacated by Erik Siebert, who resigned in September under pressure from President Donald Trump.

In appointing Hundley - a veteran litigator with more than three decades of experience - to the role, the district court judges cited a law that allows them to hire a new person to the role after the previous holder's term expired.

The justice department has argued that the president and the attorney general maintain the right to appoint interim US attorneys. Some critics have accused the Trump administration's appointments of skipping the Senate confirmation process.

In addition to Virginia, judges in New York, New Jersey, California and Nevada have ruled that a Trump administration's pick for a US attorney role was serving unlawfully.

"It was a great honor to be appointed by the Court as Interim United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia," Hundley said, in part, in a statement to the BBC.

"Despite my dismissal by the President, I will continue to support our country and its justice system in any way I can," he added.

The back-and-forth over the prestigious Virginia position is the latest in a conflict that relates to the Trump administration's attempted prosecutions of New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.

Siebert, who was appointed as acting attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in January 2025, had been overseeing the investigation into James over allegations of mortgage fraud.

James, a Democrat who led a civil fraud suit against Trump in 2023, has previously denied the allegations as "baseless" and says they are motivated by "revenge".

Siebert's office ultimately decided not to bring criminal charges against James after Siebert expressed doubts about the strength of the case. That decision drew the ire of Trump, who had called for James to be investigated.

Siebert then resigned from his position after Trump said: "I want him out".

Days after Siebert's exit, Trump appointed Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide and the president's former personal attorney, to the position. Halligan quickly secured grand jury indictments against James, as well as against Comey.

Comey, a longtime adversary of Trump, was accused of lying to Congress about not authorising a leak of classified information to the media.

In November, a US judge dismissed the cases against James and Comey, ruling that Halligan had been unlawfully appointed to the role.