DUS IZ NIES

Saturday, September 20, 2025

Trump says he axed US attorney investigating NY AG Tish James: ‘He didn’t quit, I fired him!’

The US attorney investigating mortgage fraud allegations against New York state Attorney General Letitia James didn’t resign, he was fired, President Trump declared on Truth Social.

Erik Siebert, the top prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, told staff he resigned Friday amid reports he was facing pressure from the Trump administration over the James probe, which has yet to result in criminal charges.

“Today I withdrew the Nomination of Erik Siebert as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, when I was informed that he received the UNUSUALLY STRONG support of the two absolutely terrible, sleazebag Democrat Senators, from the Great State of Virginia,” Trump posted on Truth Social, just after midnight Saturday.

“He didn’t quit, I fired him!” the president asserted.

“Next time let him go in as a Democrat, not a Republican,” Trump added. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Siebert, whom Trump nominated in May, had yet to be confirmed by the Senate. He announced his resignation after the president made clear he no longer wanted the prosecutor around.

“I want him out,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Friday afternoon.

Trump said he changed his mind on nominating Siebert after he learned that Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, had expressed support for him.

“I have other people, judges, and I have US attorneys for other states where I have the same situation. And they can’t get approved. So when I learned that they voted for him, I said, ‘I don’t really want him.’”

Siebert emailed his team in the Eastern District – after Trump’s Oval Office remarks – that he had turned in his resignation paperwork, according to multiple outlets.

“This evening, I submitted my resignation as Interim U.S. Attorney for [Eastern District of Virginia],” Siebert wrote. “For the last eight months, I have had the pleasure of leading the finest and most exceptional of DOJ employees who care deeply about our nation and our EDVA community.”

“Thank you for the lessons you have taught me, the sacrifices you have made, and the pursuit of justice you strive for every day,” he added.

In April, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte requested that the FBI open an investigation into James over allegations of mortgage fraud.

Pulte alleged James “falsified records” to obtain favorable loans on a home she purchased in 2023 in Virginia and a Brooklyn brownstone she’s owned since 2001.

James allegedly indicated the Norfolk, Va. home would be her “principal residence” while acting as state attorney general.

She has dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and “part of a “revenge tour” by Trump because she brought civil fraud charges against him and his company, the Trump Organization.

Siebert had been weighing potential charges against James and was due to meet Monday with Justice Department Special Attorney Ed Martin to discuss the status of the case, a source familiar told The Post.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Get set for the UN’s week of obscene Israel-bashing lies

This week’s United Nations General Assembly will be a gala of hypocrisy and hate, as the world’s worst tyrants, sycophants and cowards gather to unload all their scorn and bad faith at Israel.

Blaming the Jewish state for most of the world’s ills is UN routine even in times of peace; with the IDF beginning the final stages of its campaign to drive Hamas out of Gaza, the hate will be all the louder, the lies the more outrageous.

At center stage will be the endless insistence that Israel is committing “genocide” and imposing “famine” in Gaza.

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday voted to allow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address its annual meeting of world leaders by video after the United States revoked his visa last month. The motion passed by a vote of 145-5, with six abstentions.

Abbas had hoped to attend a meeting next week called for by France and Saudi Arabia aimed at advancing a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia plan to recognize a Palestinian state.

The United States is opposed to those efforts, saying the promise of statehood has emboldened Hamas and made it more difficult to reach a deal for a ceasefire and hostage release in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was opposed to Palestinian statehood before the war triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and now says it would reward the militant group.

The ceasefire talks stalled after the Trump administration’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, walked away from them in July, blaming Hamas, and suffered another blow when Israel carried out a strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar, which has served as a mediator throughout the war.

The U.S. State Department revoked the visas of around 80 Palestinian officials last month, including Abbas, accusing the Palestinian leadership of undermining peace efforts.

Days ahead of the General Assembly vote, a number of U.S. allies including France and the U.K. had tried to urge the U.S. to reconsider its visa ban for Abbas. The decision by the Trump administration has received widespread backlash. The U.N. has called it a violation of the Host Country agreement the U.S. made with the international organization that requires it to allow heads of state and government to travel to New York for diplomatic work and for the annual gatherings.

France and Saudi Arabia have advanced a phased plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. It would be governed by Abbas’ Palestinian Authority with international assistance.

The Palestinian Authority is led by rivals of Hamas and currently administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It recognizes Israel and cooperates with it on security matters, but the Israeli government says the authority is not truly committed to peace and accuses it of incitement.

Many Palestinians view the Palestinian Authority’s leaders as corrupt and autocratic. Polls in recent years have shown that a vast majority want the 89-year-old Abbas, whose mandate expired in 2009, to resign. There have been no national elections since 2006, when Hamas won in a landslide.