Jessica Aber, the former US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, was found dead in her home on Saturday morning. The 43-year-old, who had overseen major cases involving CIA leaks and Russian fraud schemes, was discovered unresponsive by Alexandria police officers just before 9.20 am. Authorities are currently investigating the cause of her death.
Aber, who resigned in January following US President Donald Trump’s return to office, played a pivotal role in high-profile cases, including the prosecution of ex-CIA analyst Asif Rahman. The 34-year-old pleaded guilty last year to leaking top-secret documents detailing Israel’s planned strike on Iran, an act that led to a delay in Israel’s retaliatory attack against Tehran. Aber had strongly condemned Rahman’s actions, saying that his leak “placed lives at risk, undermined US foreign relations, and compromised our ability to collect vital intelligence in the future.”
She also spearheaded the case against Virginia-based Eleview International Inc, whose executives, Oleg Nayandin and Vitaliy Borisenko, were accused of illegally exporting over $6 million worth of sensitive American technology to Russia through third-party countries like Turkey, Finland, and Kazakhstan. The indictment was part of broader US efforts to enforce sanctions against Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine.
In another major case, Aber secured indictments against Russian nationals Sergey Ivanov and Timur Shakhmametov, who were linked to one of the largest online money laundering operations. The two, who had a $10 million bounty on their arrests, allegedly catered to cybercrime marketplaces, ransomware groups, and hackers responsible for major data breaches in the US financial sector.
Aber was also instrumental in the justice department’s historic indictment of four Russian soldiers accused of committing war crimes against an American in Ukraine. The victim, whose identity was not disclosed, was allegedly kidnapped, tortured, and subjected to a mock execution in the Kherson region. The indicted officers included Suren Seiranovich Mkrtchyan and Dmitry Budnik, along with two lower-ranking soldiers identified only by their first names, Valerii and Nazar.
At the time, Aber had vowed that her office would continue to pursue war criminals, saying, “We are proud to be at the forefront of the justice department’s effort to hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable in Ukraine.”
