The former US Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia who was found dead Saturday morning had been in charge of some of the biggest cases targeting leaks in the CIA and Russian nationals carrying out fraud in America.
Officials are investigating Jessica Aber’s cause of death after the 43-year-old was discovered unresponsive at her home by Alexandria Police Department officers just before 9:20 a.m. Saturday morning.
Prior to her resignation in January as President Trump took office, the Biden-nominated attorney saw one of her biggest wins in court when ex-CIA analyst Asif Rahman, 34, pleaded guilty to leaking top secret documents about Israel’s plan to strike Iran last year.
The high-profile case saw Rahman posting documents detailing Israel’s October strike on Telegram, forcing the Jewish state to hold off on the retaliatory attack against Tehran.
Aber had slammed Rahman’s actions as a “violation of his oath, his responsibility, and the law,” as she said the leak “placed lives at risk, undermined U.S. foreign relations, and compromised our ability to collect vital intelligence in the future.”
Aber also led the case against Eleview International Inc., a Virginia-based company whose two senior executives were accused of running “three different schemes to illegally transship sensitive American technology to Russia,” according to the Department of Justice.
Executives Oleg Nayandin, 54, and Vitaliy Borisenko, 39, were accused in November of illegally shipping out more than $6 million worth of goods, including telecommunications equipment, to Russia through ports in Turkey, Finland and Kazakhstan as a means to bypass US sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
The case came just two months after Aber secured indictments against two Russian nationals accused of fraud and money laundering.
Sergey Ivanov and Timur Shakhmametov, who had a $10 million reward for their arrests, were allegedly behind one the largest money laundering operations online that “catered to major cybercrime marketplaces and ransomware groups, and to prolific hackers responsible for some of the largest data breaches targeting critical U.S. financial infrastructure,” according to the Secret Service.
Along with taking on the fraud and leak cases, Aber was also involved in the DOJ’s unprecedented indictment against four Russian soldiers who allegedly committed war crimes against an American living in Ukraine.
The victim, who was not identified, was kidnapped from his home in the Kherson region and savagely beaten, tortured and subjected to a mock execution, according to the DOJ.
The defendants were identified as commanding officers Suren Seiranovich Mkrtchyan, 45, and Dmitry Budnik, and two lower-level soldiers identified in the indictment only by their first names, Valerii and Nazar.
“We are proud to be at the forefront of the Justice Department’s effort to hold perpetrators of war crimes violations accountable in Ukraine and will continue to pursue them,” Aber said at the time.
Alexandria authorities said Saturday Aber’s cause and manner of death would be determined by the medical examiner, but a family friend told NBC News police believe she succumbed to a longstanding medical issue.
Two ex-senior Justice Department officials with knowledge of the matter also told the outlet that investigators have found no evidence to suggest foul play.
Born and raised in Virginia, Aber graduated from the University of Richmond in 2003 and earned her law degree at the William & Mary Law School in 2006.
Before being named US Attorney for EDV, she was an assistant US attorney in the district since 2009.
She then served as counsel to the assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice from 2015 to 2016.
Aber touted that her time in government was dedicated to restoring public trust in law enforcement, with the official notched more than 50,000 miles in her Hyundai as she drove around Virginia to speak with local residents, she told the Washington Post in January.
In one of her final LinkedIn posts, Aber shared a “lovely” photo of the US attorneys at a 2024 conference that was signed by then-AG Merrick Garland.
“It was lovely, though, to receive this surprise in the mail,” she wrote. “Good memories.”
The current US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia mourned the shocking loss in a statement issued Saturday afternoon.
“We are heartbroken beyond words to learn of the passing of our friend and former colleague, US Attorney Jessica Aber. She was unmatched as a leader, mentor, and prosecutor, and she is simply irreplaceable as a human being,” the statement from US Attorney Erik Siebert read.
“The loss of Jessica Aber, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is deeply tragic,” added US Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to her family and friends during this profoundly difficult time.”
Additional reporting by David Propper
