Less that two months after being sworn in as the new U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, Todd Gilbert is out.
Gilbert resigned effective 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to Brian McGinn, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney鈥檚 Office.
Robert Tracci, an assistant Virginia attorney general and former commonwealth鈥檚 attorney in Charlottesville, has been named acting U.S. Attorney, McGinn said. No additional details were available Wednesday night.
Gilbert, a former Shenandoah Valley state lawmaker and Republican majority leader of the Virginia House of Delegates, was appointed interim U.S. Attorney on July 14 by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
He was nominated for the position, which requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate, by President Donald Trump.
Gilbert previously called the job a once in a lifetime opportunity. 鈥淚 bring to this job truly the heart of a prosecutor,鈥 he said in an interview on his first day at work in the 麻花视频 office of the U.S. Attorney.
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Efforts to reach him Wednesday night were unsuccessful.
Gilbert , however, not with a statement but with a well-known internet meme. It shows Will Ferrell鈥檚 character from the 2004 film 鈥淎nchorman鈥 saying, 鈥淏oy, that escalated quickly.鈥
Tracci, who also could not be reached, was one of two candidates 鈥 the other being Gilbert 鈥 recommended to Trump earlier this year by U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats from Virginia.
News of Gilbert鈥檚 sudden departure came as a surprise to attorneys.
鈥淚t鈥檚 extraordinary and probably unprecedented,鈥 said Paul Beers, a 麻花视频 attorney who has represented criminal defendants in the Western District for nearly 40 years. Beers also called it 鈥渦nsettling.鈥
Earlier this year, Gilbert announced his plans to run for reelection to represent the 33rd District, which consists of Page and Shenandoah counties and parts of Rockingham and Warren counties.
But after his appointment as U.S. Attorney, he resigned from his seat in the General Assembly.
Gilbert, 54, lives in Mount Jackson, a town in the northern part of the Western District, which stretches from the Lynchburg region to the western tip of the state in Lee County, and extends all the way north to Winchester.
He spent 14 years as a state prosecutor in four jurisdictions 鈥 the city of Lynchburg and the counites of Frederick, Shenandoah and Warren 鈥 and later defended criminal and traffic charges from a private practice in Woodstock, which he recently shut down.
Although Gilbert had yet to be confirmed by the Senate, University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias had earlier predicted that was 鈥渁s good as a done deal鈥 鈥 given his solid reputation and his support from Warner and Kaine.
