A fired top national security prosecutor on Friday appeared to accuse Justice Department leaders of “making American citizens less safe” amid a string of firings, according to a letter to his colleagues obtained by a source who said the missive was posted on the ousted prosecutor’s office door.
Michael Ben’Ary, who three sources familiar with the situation confirmed to NBC News was terminated Wednesday after a social media post from a Trump-aligned writer suggested he was part of the “internal resistance” to indicting former FBI Director James Comey, seemingly wrote he lamented “what has happened to this office and the Department of Justice in just a few short months.”
Ben’Ary worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The letter said that his former colleagues’ oath to the Constitution remains their responsibility to uphold.
“It is this oath that requires you to follow the facts and the law wherever they lead, free from fear or favor, and unhindered by political interference. In recent months, the political leadership of the Department have violated these principles, jeopardizing our national security and making American citizens less safe,” the letter said.
The letter attributed to Ben’Ary also said that the Justice Department’s “decisions to remove experienced career officials from US Attorneys Offices, the FBI, and other critical parts of DOJ undermines our country’s ability to counter terrorist organizations, malign nation-state actors, and countless others that seek to harm our nation and its citizens.”
The letter attributed to Ben’Ary said he was dismissed without cause, apparently “based on little more than a single social media post containing false information,” referring to an X post from Julie Kelly — a conservative commentator who has previously advocated for Jan. 6 defendants.
Kelly had posted that “one can only assume” that Ben’Ary, a veteran prosecutor who led the office’s national security unit, “was a big part of the internal resistance” to indicting Comey.
Lindsey Halligan, the new acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, charged Comey with making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding in connection with testimony he gave during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Sept. 30, 2020. She issued the charges even though prosecutors within her department had concerns, NBC News has reported. Comey has denied any wrongdoing.
President Donald Trump had publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey, who has remained in the president’s crosshairs since his first term.
Kelly responded to the letter attributed to Ben’Ary on X Friday, writing in part, “This letter simply reaffirms that new US Atty for EDVA Lindsey Halligan made the right move in firing him. Are we supposed to believe now, after reading the same worn partisan attack on the Trump DOJ, that he was neutral in the Comey indictment controversy at the office?”
NBC News previously reported that according to three sources, Ben’Ary didn’t work on the Comey case.
Before his termination, Ben’Ary was prosecuting a case against Mohammad Sharifullah, a terror suspect facing charges in the U.S. in connection with the bombing of Kabul International Airport’s Abbey Gate in 2021. That bombing killed 13 U.S. service members as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan.
“While I have the utmost confidence in my co-counsel, my abrupt, apparently thoughtless removal with no period of transition will hurt this case,”the letter said.
“This example highlights the most troubling aspect of the current operations of the Department of Justice: the leadership is more concerned with punishing the President’s perceived enemies than they are with protecting our national security,” the letter said. “Justice for Americans killed and injured by our enemies should not be contingent on what someone in the Department of Justice sees in their social media feed that day.”
The Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia did not respond to requests for comment. Ben’Ary could not be reached for comment.
Ben’Ary’s firing is the latest in a series of departures in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Erik S. Siebert stepped down last month as acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia after Trump said he wanted him “out.”
And Maya Song, another DOJ prosecutor, was also fired from that office last month, NBC News has reported.
Both Ben’Ary and Song served during the Biden administration under former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who led the early stages of federal investigations into Trump.
Michael Kosnar and Ryan J. Reilly contributed.