Author: The Associated Press

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he would nominate senior White House aide Lindsey Halligan to serve as the top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, just one day after the Alexandria-based office was thrown into turmoil by the resignation of U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert.

The nomination drew sharp criticism from Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), who represents Northern Virginia including Alexandria, where the federal prosecutor’s office is headquartered. “Donald Trump hates the rule of law and is making all of us less safe by firing seasoned professionals, to replace them with goons and yes men who will bend the law to his whim,” Beyer said in a statement Saturday. “This is corrupt as hell.”

Erik Siebert, the U.S. Attorney who led the Eastern District of Virginia federal prosecutor’s office from its Alexandria headquarters, resigned Friday under pressure from the Trump administration amid its push to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Siebert confirmed his departure in an email to colleagues, reviewed by The Associated Press, in which he praised them as the “finest and most exceptional” of Justice Department employees but made no mention of the political turmoil that preceded his resignation.