President Donald Trump's hand-picked prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia is getting a lot of pushback from career prosecutors in the office because of her efforts to prosecute the president's political foes, CNN reporter Katelyn Polantz revealed on Monday.
Polantz joined CNN's "The Arena with Kasie Hunt" to discuss how career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia are reacting to their new boss, Lindsey Halligan. Halligan is a former insurance attorney with no prosecutorial experience whom Trump picked to run the Eastern District of Virginia, which typically handles national security or classified information cases, after former U.S. Attorney Erick Siebert resigned last month.
Reports indicate the Trump administration pressured Siebert to resign after he refused to pursue prosecutions against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey, both of whom have been indicted since Halligan took over.
Polantz revealed that DOJ lawyers have left clues about their discontent around the office.
"The quiet part is getting said out loud," Polantz said. "After one of those people was fired, he tapped on his door a note that said, 'Justice Department leadership is more concerned with punishing the president's perceived enemies than they are with protecting our national security.'"
"So they're saying it inside," she added.
