President Trump is claiming responsibility for the departure of a senior federal prosecutor who stepped down Friday, ending an apparent rift within the administration over the charging of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, for mortgage fraud.

The United States attorney for the Northern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, told his staff that he was resigning late Friday, just hours after Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that “I want him out.”

Mr. Trump posted on his Truth Social account shortly after midnight Saturday that he had fired the prosecutor, whom he had nominated in May, after learning that the nomination had the support of the state’s two Democratic senators. Under a long-standing Senate practice known as blue slips, home state senators can block the nomination of a United States attorney to serve in their state.

Mr. Siebert did not offer any reasons for his departure in an email to his staff that said he was resigning. However, the prosecutor had been at the fulcrum of an apparent dispute within the  Trump administration over his handling of the case against Ms. James.

Some Washington factions appeared to be pushing for him to be fired after he reportedly told top Justice Department officials that his office had found insufficient evidence to bring charges. Others, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and her chief deputy, Todd Blanche, appeared to be defending him. 

In his overnight social media post, Mr. Trump offered another explanation for Mr. Siebert’s departure.

“Today I withdrew the Nomination of Erik Siebert as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, when I was informed that he received the UNUSUALLY STRONG support of the two absolutely terrible, sleazebag Democratic Senators, from the Great State of Virginia,” the president posted. “He didn’t quit, I fired him!”

Even before the resignation, the Times quoted anonymous administration sources who described “shock” at the news of Mr. Siebert’s possible removal. The sources characterized the situation as “fluid, unsettled and confusing.”

Mr. Siebert is a former District of Columbia police officer who possesses allies on both Capitol Hill and in the upper reaches of the Department of Justice. His replacement would require Senate confirmation, including approval from the state’s Democratic senators.   

The Trump administration has for five months been investigating Ms. James criminally over allegations that she repeatedly lied to secure better loan terms, including for a modest Norfolk, Virginia, house. Charges, though, would have to come from Mr. Siebert’s office. He was also tasked with investigating whether a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, James Comey —  a Virginia resident —  lied under oath. The Times reports that Mr. Siebert was skeptical of that case as well. No charges have yet been filed.

Mr. Siebert was appointed to his post by President Trump, but with the support of Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. Mr. Kaine ran against Mr. Trump as Secretary Clinton’s pick for vice president.

Mr. Siebert had jurisdiction over the case because its strongest piece of evidence appears to be the allegation that she listed the Norfolk dwelling as her primary residence even though she was required to live in New York. Ms. James has said she was helping her niece buy the house and did not commit mortgage fraud.

The accusations against Ms. James were first assembled by the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, William Pulte, an heir to the Pulte housing construction fortune.

Mr. Pulte’s dossier leveled the allegation connected to Norfolk as well as two more — that Ms. James listed her father as her husband on a mortgage document and that she represented a Brooklyn brownstone as possessing four units instead of five. Ms. James’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, calls the allegations “threadbare” and “cherry-picked.”

Mr. Siebert appeared inclined to agree with that assessment. Jonathan Karl of ABC News — whom Mr. Trump accused, earlier this week, of harboring “hate in his heart” — reports, “Federal prosecutors in Virginia had uncovered no clear evidence to prove that James had knowingly committed mortgage fraud.” 

Mr. Trump calls Ms. James “biased” and “corrupt,” among other imprecations. Ms. James has called Mr. Trump an “illegitimate” president. Mr. Siebert is close to a former DOJ official, Emil Bove, who was recently confirmed to the Third United States Appeals Circuit.

When Mr. Bove was at the Trump DOJ prior to his accession to the bench, he ordered the acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, to drop bribery charges against Mayor Eric Adams.

She refused and resigned, along with other senior prosecutors both at the SDNY and at Main Justice. Mr. Bove ultimately argued for the dismissal himself. The special attorney for mortgage fraud, Ed Martin, does not possess the authority to charge Ms. James on his own. 

Mr. Trump’s wrath against Ms. James, who has sued his administration some 100 times, appears to flow mostly from her civil fraud lawsuit against him, his two adult sons, and his family business. She accused him of mastering “the art of the steal” and secured a judgment  — thanks to a sympathetic judge who found the Trump Organization liable without a hearing — against him for some $500 million. That judgment was overturned by New York’s intermediate appellate court. 

While it is not yet known what is staying Mr. Siebert’s hand from seeking an indictment, any conviction of Ms. James would require a showing of intent to deceive.

Prosecutors would likely point to a raft of mortgage fraud cases brought by the attorney general — including the one against Mr. Trump — to show that Ms. James was sophisticated when it came to real estate misrepresentations. However published reports say Mr. Siebert’s office has seen other documents in which Ms. James makes clear that the Virginia residence was to be a second home.

Ms. James has hardly been shy about prosecuting others for mortgage fraud. To take just one example, in 2024 she charged members of the Gambino crime family with a mortgage fraud scheme to purchase a $600,000 home in New Jersey. Mr. Pulte and others maintain that the evidence against Ms. James is sufficient to take her to trial — and win. Mr. Pulte has also referred Senator Adam Schiff and a Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, for prosecution for mortgage fraud. 

Mr. Lowell concedes that a form concerning the Norfolk home​​ “mistakenly stated the property to be Ms. James’ principal residence,” but that she also sent an email to her mortgage broker insisting that the property “WILL NOT be my primary residence.”

Mr. Pulte insists that Ms. James “falsified bank documents and property records.” Mr Lowell calls all of the accusations against his client part of a “revenge tour.”