Updated April 5 with new biographical information.
Virginia’s two U.S. senators have nominated candidates for U.S. attorney in each of the state’s two federal court districts. One of those nominated is state House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County.
Also nominated for the Western District of Virginia is Robert Tracci, the former commonwealth’s attorney in Albemarle County and now the senior assistant attorney general and section chief for major crimes and emerging threats in the state attorney general’s office.
The power to appoint a new U.S. attorney belongs to President Trump, subject to Senate confirmation. It’s traditional for senators to do the initial vetting of candidates, even if they’re from the opposite party.
“We believe that any of these candidates would make an excellent U.S. Attorney, and we are honored to be able to recommend them to you,” Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner wrote in a letter to President Trump.
Gilbert’s selection would set in motion a leadership scramble among Republicans in the House of Delegates as the party heads into an election. In an interview this week with The Virginia Scope, Gilbert said he was “conflicted” about passing up a possible chance to be speaker of the House again but that being a U.S. attorney was a “once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Gilbert began his legal career as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Lynchburg before moving back to his native Shenandoah County. He prosecuted cases in Frederick County and Warren County before being elected to the General Assembly, where he later rose to speaker of the House the last time Republicans held the majority.
Tracci has prosecuted or managed the prosecution of cases at the federal, state and local levels for 15 of the last 18 years. He served nearly seven years as chief counsel for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and nearly two years as deputy assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush. He was elected commonwealth’s attorney in Albemarle County in 2015 but was defeated in 2019. He’s also been a senior assistant commonwealth’s attorney and special assistant commonwealth’s attorney for Louisa and Greene counties (2020-22). Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed him to serve on the Virginia Crime Commission.
The Roanoke Times reported that Maggie Cleary, a deputy commonwealth’s attorney in Culpeper County, had been interviewed for the Western District position but was not nominated.
The Western District has courts in Abingdon, Charlottesville, Danville, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg and Roanoke.
For the Eastern District of Virginia, the two senators nominated Michael Gill and Erik Siebert.
Gill is assistant general counsel and director of investigations for Huntington Ingalls Industries in Newport News. Prior to that, Gill served as a federal prosecutor for twenty years, fifteen of which were in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District.
Siebert is currently the interim United States attorney for the Eastern District. Prior to joining the office, he was a police officer and an investigator with the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C.
