Overview
- Michael Ben’Ary, the Eastern District of Virginia’s national security chief, was fired hours after a post by Trump-aligned writer Julie Kelly speculated he resisted the James Comey case, though multiple sources say he had no role in that prosecution.
- In a letter taped to his former office door, Ben’Ary said leadership prioritized punishing the president’s perceived enemies over public safety and called his dismissal baseless and driven by a single social media claim.
- Another senior prosecutor, Maya Song, was removed days earlier after Lindsey Halligan, a former Trump lawyer with no prior prosecutorial experience, took over the office and secured a grand jury indictment of Comey despite a career prosecutors’ declination memo.
- The Virginia office is a key venue for national security cases, and Ben’Ary had been leading the prosecution of Mohammad Sharifullah in the Abbey Gate bombing case, which remains scheduled for trial in December.
- Justice Department officials declined to discuss personnel decisions as reporting described a broader wave of career-staff firings, and Comey’s arraignment in Alexandria is set for Oct. 9 with legal challenges expected.