President Trump’s interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, has dismissed additional senior prosecutors and filed a motion seeking the appointment of a “filter team” to handle potentially privileged material in the case against James Comey.
Beth Yusi and Kristin Bird were no longer with the office as of Friday. Both attorneys received termination letters, one source said, after Halligan accused them of leaking unauthorized information to the press. Yusi, who joined the Department of Justice in 2007, recently concluded there was “no probable cause” to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Late Sunday night, Halligan filed a new motion requesting the appointment of a “filter team” to review potentially privileged material in the government’s case against Comey. The filing appears tied to Halligan’s broader effort to disqualify Patrick Fitzgerald, identified as one of Comey’s “attorneys” who allegedly served as an intermediary in his 2017 media leak operation aimed at undermining the president and triggering the appointment of a special counsel in the Russiagate investigation.
A filter team would be tasked with reviewing all seized evidence, identifying any materials that may involve attorney-client or other protected communications, and submitting those determinations to the judges, effectively streamlining the process and avoiding drawn-out disputes over each document.
Just last week, senior DOJ prosecutor Maggie Cleary, who briefly led the office, was removed after siding with career staff who resisted charging James Comey. She was present but not seated at the government table when Halligan presented the indictment in court.
Erik Siebert, Trump’s first appointee to lead the office, previously resigned under pressure as internal resistance mounted over the Comey prosecution. Following that indictment, prosecutor Michael Ben’Ary was dismissed after public scrutiny over his ties to former Biden administration Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. Prosecutor Maya Song was also dismissed, and Comey’s son-in-law, career prosecutor Troy Edwards Jr., resigned.
