The number two prosecutor in the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of Virginia has been fired, according to two people familiar with the matter, the latest in a series of dismissals in an office that is leading controversial criminal prosecutions of James Comey and Letitia James.
Robert McBride, a former federal prosecutor in Kentucky, was brought in late last year to serve as the deputy to Lindsey Halligan, a Trump ally who the president installed as the acting US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia in September. McBride was dismissed after declining to lead the Comey prosecution, which a judge threw out in November after ruling Halligan was unlawfully appointed, one of the people said. (The justice department is appealing the ruling.)
McBride refused to take on important cases in the district, another person familiar with the matter said, and had met privately with judges in the district with the goal of being appointed himself to the top prosecutor job. The person said top justice department officials supported McBride’s firing.
Natalie Baldassarre, a justice department spokeswoman, referred a request for comment to the us attorney’s office for the eastern district of Virginia. That office did not immediately return a request for comment.