Virginia's Latino-American Attorney General fires 30 liberal staffers shortly after being sworn in

Shortly after being sworn in on Saturday, Virginia’s first statewide elected Latino, Attorney General Jason Miyares, fired 30 staffers, including many attorneys who were unlikely to help achieve his campaign promises of enacting law and order in the Commonwealth. 

In a statement, the Republican A.G.’s spokesperson, Victoria LaCivita, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the former staff members were told that Miyares would be moving in a different direction.

“During the campaign, it was made clear that now Attorney General-elect Miyares and Attorney General Herring have very different visions for the office. We are restructuring the office, as every incoming AG has done in the past,” LaCivita wrote. 

On the campaign trail, Miyares told voters that the “Commonwealth’s attorneys are not doing their jobs," but promised to prosecute crimes that had gone ignored by Democratic attorneys. 

Miyares also said that he would pursue legislation under Republican Governor Glen Youngkin that “would essentially say, if the chief law enforcement officer in a jurisdiction — either the chief of police or the sheriff — makes a request because a commonwealth’s attorney is not doing their job, then I’m going to do their job for them.”

“I’m thinking specifically, some of the so-called ‘social justice’ commonwealth’s attorneys that have been elected particularly in Northern Virginia. We’re obviously aware of some pretty horrific cases,” he added.

Shortly after being sworn into office on Saturday, Miyares launched two new investigations into the Virginia Parole Board as well as Loudoun County Public schools.

“One of the reasons Virginians get so fed up with government is the lack of transparency — and that’s a big issue here,” Miyares said in a statement. “The Virginia Parole Board broke the law when they let out murderers, rapists, and cop killers early on their sentences without notifying the victims. Loudoun County Public Schools covered up a sexual assault on school grounds for political gain, leading to an additional assault of a young girl.”

The Virginia Parole Board has recently come under fire after it was revealed that cop killers and murderers have allegedly been granted parole without properly following procedures. Although the board is supposed to inform the families of victims, as well as prosecutors, when a criminal is being released, the Commonwealth’s inspector general found those instructions had not been followed. 

“It appears that neither the rules nor the law were followed,” Suffolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Phil Ferguson said in April of 2021.

“The three cases in Suffolk were among the worst people I’ve prosecuted in my many years as a prosecutor,” he added in reference to several convicted killers who had been granted parole. “The crimes were committed by people that maybe should have spent the rest of their life in prison.”