Former U.S. Attorney Found Dead At 43 Investigating CIA, Russian Fraud
Law enforcement officials revealed the cause of death for former U.S. Attorney Jessica Aber, months after she died in her sleep at home in March.
The medical examiner’s office in Alexandria, Virginia, says the former official died from a “sudden unexpected death in epilepsy,” according to the Virginian-Pilot. Earlier this year, police declared they had not found any evidence indicating her death was due to anything other than natural causes.
Aber, who was 43 years old, was the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia from 2021 to 2025. He fired himself on January 20, the same day that President Trump took office again.
In her resignation letter, she called her role “an honor beyond measure.”
“I am deeply grateful to senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and to President Biden for the opportunity to lead this office and to Attorney General Garland for his steadfast leadership,” she wrote at the time, referring to the two senators representing Virginia. “I am proud of the work we have done with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to enforce the law and build community trust.”
It has also been revealed what Aber had been investigating and prosecuting.
According to the New York Post, Aber “had been in charge of some of the biggest cases targeting leaks in the CIA and Russian nationals carrying out fraud in America.”
Authorities are investigating Aber’s cause of death, other reports noted. She was found unresponsive at her home by Alexandria police just before 9:20 a.m. on Saturday.
Before stepping down in January following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Biden-nominated attorney secured one of her most high-profile courtroom victories when former CIA analyst Asif Rahman, 34, pleaded guilty to leaking top-secret documents detailing Israel’s plan to strike Iran last year.
The high-profile case involved Rahman posting classified documents on Telegram that revealed details of Israel’s planned October strike, ultimately forcing the Israeli government to delay its retaliatory attack on Tehran.
Aber shredded 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 prosecution against Eleview International Inc., a Virginia-based company whose two top executives were accused of orchestrating “three separate schemes to illegally transship sensitive U.S. technology to Russia,” according to the Department of Justice.
In November, executives Oleg Nayandin, 54, and Vitaliy Borisenko, 39, were charged with illegally exporting over $6 million worth of goods—including telecommunications equipment—to Russia. Prosecutors say the shipments were routed through ports in Turkey, Finland, and Kazakhstan to circumvent U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, The Post reported.
The case came just two months after Aber secured indictments against two Russian nationals on charges of fraud and money laundering, said the outlet.
Sergey Ivanov and Timur Shakhmametov, whom the government had placed a $10 million reward, were allegedly involved in one the most extensive 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.
In addition to handling high-profile fraud and leak cases, Aber played a key role in the Justice Department’s unprecedented indictment of four Russian soldiers accused of committing war crimes against an American citizen in Ukraine.
According to the DOJ, the unnamed victim was abducted from his home in the Kherson region, where he was brutally beaten, tortured, and subjected to a mock execution, The Post noted further.
The defendants include commanding officers Suren Seiranovich Mkrtchyan, 45, and Dmitry Budnik, along with two lower-ranking soldiers identified in the indictment only by their first names, Valerii and Nazar, the outlet reported.
“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.
