(Adds dropped letter in “case” in headline)
WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) – The Trump administration has fired a Justice Department prosecutor after he declined to lead the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey, MS Now reported on Monday, citing multiple people briefed on the matter.
Robert McBride, 64, the No. 2 official in the department’s prominent Eastern District of Virginia, had been asked to run the Comey case in recent days but told Justice Department officials it would be difficult to do that and also run the office.
A federal judge in November dismissed criminal charges against Comey, a longtime critic of President Donald Trump, after the U.S. attorney he hand picked to prosecute them was unlawfully appointed.
McBride was named to be first assistant to U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, a former personal lawyer to Trump.
Halligan recently discovered that McBride held private meetings with federal judges in the district, MS Now reported. The Attorney General supported McBride’s firing, it said. The Justice Department did not immediately return a call for comment on the matter.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Costas Pitas and Caitlin Webber)
