Overview

• Michael Ben’Ary, the Eastern District of Virginia’s top national security prosecutor, was fired Wednesday hours after a Julie Kelly post on X falsely tied him to the James Comey prosecution, and people familiar with the matter said he was not involved.
• Another senior attorney, Maya Song, was terminated Friday by interim U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan after previously serving as deputy to Erik Siebert, who recently left under pressure.
• Ben’Ary had been the lead attorney on the Mohammad Sharifullah terrorism case set for trial in early December, leaving that prosecution without its lead lawyer.
• The personnel moves follow Halligan’s installation as interim U.S. attorney and the office’s grand jury indictment of Comey after career lawyers wrote a memo questioning whether the evidence supported charges.
• Reporting describes the dismissals as part of broader social‑media‑driven purges of DOJ staff, and the Justice Department and the EDVA office did not respond to requests for comment.