Theo Stamos, who served two four-year terms as Arlington’s commonwealth’s attorney before being defeated in a costly and contentious 2019 primary, has been tapped to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria.
Stamos has been appointed first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. With the U.S. Attorney position currently vacant, she also will serve as acting U.S. Attorney until the post is filled permanently.
The appointment was first reported by Bloomberg.
The Eastern District of Virginia includes the key population centers of the commonwealth, from Northern Virginia to Richmond to the Hampton Roads area.
More than 300 attorneys are assigned to the office, making it one of the largest federal prosecutor offices in the nation. Offices are located in Alexandria, Richmond, Norfolk and Newport News.
The post of U.S. Attorney requires Senate confirmation, with several attempts by the Trump Administration to fill it proving unsuccessful.
The administration’s appointment of Lindsey Halligan ended when a federal judge in November 2025 ruled she had exceeded the maximum tenure without confirmation as detailed in the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. A judge accused Halligan of “masquerading” as U.S. Attorney without the legal standing to hold the post.
Before Halligan, Trump had appointed Erik Siebert to the post, only to later force him out.
Stamos had been serving since 1987 in the office of commonwealth’s attorney in Arlington when she won the post in 2011, succeeding retiring top prosecutor Richard Trodden.
As commonwealth’s attorney, Stamos was the local prosecutor for Arlington and Falls Church.
In 2019, Stamos was defeated in the Democratic primary by Parisa Dehghani-Tafti. Dehghani-Tafti went on to win the 2019 general election, and after defeating a Democratic challenger in the party’s 2023 primary was re-elected to a second term. In both general elections, Dehghani-Tafti was unopposed.
After leaving elected office, Stamos took a legislative-affairs position with the U.S. Department of Justice in the first Trump Administration, Beginning in January 2022, she held several top staff positions under Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R).
Miyares was defeated by Democrat Jay Jones last November, leaving most of the incumbent’s staff without jobs in January.
Before joining the office of Arlington commonwealth’s attorney, Stamos worked as a journalist in the mid-1980s, including for the Washington Times. Her husband, Craig Esherick, was head men’s basketball coach at Georgetown University and currently is a professor at George Mason University and associate director of its Center for Sport Management.
