Maggie Cleary

Madison, VA

Maggie Cleary is a native Virginian and career prosecutor. Since 2025, she has served in the Trump Administration at the Department of Justice.

Cleary has served as both a state and federal prosecutor, appearing in dozens of courts throughout the Commonwealth. She was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Virginia and later the First Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia  She has predominantly prosecuted cases in which children were victims, in addition to felony sexual assault cases and possession of child sexual abuse material.  Committed to teaching the next generation about our constitutional order, she assisted law enforcement and the Culpeper County Schools by serving as an adjunct for their criminal adjudication course and teaches Applied Trial Evidence at her alma mater, the University of Virginia School of Law.

Cleary previously served in Governor Youngkin’s administration as Deputy Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security, overseeing thirteen state agencies, including the Virginia State Police and the Department of Corrections. She later worked as Senior Counsel to Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.

She currently serves as the board chair of SAFE (Services for Abused Families), a Central Virginia nonprofit organization that provides shelter, support, and advocacy to victims of domestic assault.

Cleary, her husband, Klarke Kilgore, and their collection of rescued animals live in Madison, Virginia. They enjoy spending time in Shenandoah National Park and are active parishioners at Our Lady of the Blue Ridge Catholic Church.