White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied on Monday that President Donald Trump is seeking to persecute his political opponents, saying he wants “accountability for these corrupt fraudsters who abuse their power.”
During the press briefing, Leavitt was pressed on the ouster of acting U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia Erik S. Siebert, who left his post on Friday amid pressure from the Trump administration on the investigation into allegations that New York Attorney General Letitia James engaged in mortgage fraud.
Siebert’s exit comes after the attorney reportedly expressed doubts about bringing a mortgage fraud indictment against James despite a monthslong investigation. When asked on Monday if Trump was seeking “retribution,” Leavitt said, “It’s accountability.”
“The president is fulfilling his promise to restore a Department of Justice that demands accountability, and it is not weaponizing the Department of Justice to demand accountability for those who weaponize the Department of Justice, and nobody knows what that looks like more than President Trump,” Leavitt said.
She continued, “We are not going to tolerate gaslighting from anyone in the media or from anyone on the other side who is trying to say that it’s the president who is weaponizing the DOJ.”
Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sept. 20 that he “fired” Siebert after learning Virginia’s two Democratic senators backed his nomination. The day before, he told reporters in the Oval Office that he wanted Siebert “out.”
James, a political foe of Trump’s, won a civil fraud case against him in 2024, in which a hefty penalty of nearly half a billion dollars was imposed. However, an appeals court threw out that penalty last month while upholding the ruling that Trump engaged in fraud.
The Trump administration accused James of falsifying records to receive better mortgage rates by claiming a property she owns in Virginia as her “principal residence.” James has denied any wrongdoing.
However, the investigation against James has yet to result in charges, with two senior federal law enforcement officials telling NBC News that there are concerns they do not have enough evidence to secure a conviction.
“Letitia James completely abused her oath of office,” Leavitt told reporters Monday. “Letitia James was actively and openly engaged in lawfare. You talk about weaponizing the Department of Justice. What was Letitia James’s campaign slogan? It was ‘prosecute Donald Trump.’ She was saying she was going to prosecute Donald Trump before she even knew if Donald Trump committed a crime, which, of course, we did not.”
“That’s — those are not the words of a serious prosecutor,” Leavitt continued. “Those are the words of a corrupt politician who is abusing their power.”
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In another post on Truth Social on Sept. 20, Trump announced that he would nominate senior White House aide Lindsey Halligan, who has worked with Trump for several years, including as one of his attorneys during the FBI’s classified documents investigation against him, to serve as the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Trump wrote, “Lindsey is a tough, smart, and loyal attorney, who has worked with me for a long time, including in the winning fight against the Weaponization of our Justice System by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats, which she witnessed firsthand when she stood up for my rights during the Unconstitutional and UnAmerican raid on my home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida.”
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