Metropolitan Police Department and clerkships (2005–2010) By April 2005, Siebert had been working for the
Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia. In October, he married Anne Gray Cullen, a kindergarten teacher for
Fairfax County Public Schools. Cullen's father is
Richard Cullen, the counselor to the
governor of Virginia,
Glenn Youngkin, and the state's former
attorney general and
United States attorney. Siebert served as a patrol officer and a vice investigator for the Metropolitan Police Department before resigning to pursue a
Juris Doctor from the
University of Richmond School of Law. He graduated in 2009. Siebert interned for federal magistrate judge
M. Hannah Lauck and the City of Richmond Commonwealth Attorney's Office. From 2009 to 2010, Siebert was a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge
Henry E. Hudson in Richmond, Virginia.
U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia In November 2010,
Neil MacBride, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, named Siebert as an
assistant U.S. attorney for the office's Richmond division. In 2019, he became the deputy criminal supervisor for the Richmond division.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (January–September 2025) In the
second presidential transition of
Donald Trump, advisors to the governor of Virginia,
Glenn Youngkin, recommended Siebert. He took office on January 21, 2025, following Trump's
inauguration, succeeding
Jessica Aber. As the end of Siebert's 120-day set tenure neared,
Virginia's senators,
Tim Kaine and
Mark Warner, recommended Trump nominate Siebert to retain him. The following month, federal judges in the district unanimously voted to keep Siebert in his position and Trump nominated him. The
Senate Committee on the Judiciary voted in September to advance his nomination. As U.S. attorney, Siebert worked with
Emil Bove, the acting
U.S. deputy attorney general and
principal associate deputy attorney general, on immigration and gang cases. He was respected by several officials in the
Trump administration and in
Congress, including
Iowa senator
Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Committee on the Judiciary. In September,
ABC News reported that Trump was expected to fire Siebert after investigators could not find sufficient evidence to indict
Letitia James, the
attorney general of New York, for mortgage fraud. According to
The New Yorker, "Siebert had balked at bringing criminal charges against two of Trump's supposed enemies", namely Letitia James, and former FBI director
James Comey.
Bill Pulte, the director of the
Federal Housing Finance Agency, initiated the plan to remove Siebert. On September 19, Trump gave an address from the
Oval Office publicly calling for Siebert to be removed. Hours later, Siebert resigned. Trump rejected that assertion, saying that he had fired Siebert before he could resign. According to the
Associated Press, Siebert was told to resign or be fired. The following day, the
Department of Justice named insurance lawyer and former personal Trump attorney
Lindsey Halligan as his interim successor. In November, a federal judge ruled Halligan's purported appointment as unlawful. ==References==